You'll Never Really Know Me
by Clementine Adams
Summary: When Erica mysteriously leaves Playa Linda, heartbroken Jay has to hire someone else to work at the shop. He hires the beautiful Sienna, who seems innocent and full of laughter. But what lies behind all the jokes?
1. Infatuation

_Okay, I know that I wrote some of these people out of character, but it was kind of hard to really nail who they were. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this anyway!_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or it's characters**

Braden sighed with relief as he dropped an incredibly heavy cardboard box in the back room of Jay's surf shop. That was the last box that he had to haul from the truck, and he was thankful because his muscles were aching from all the heaving lifting and surfing he had done that day.

He quickly looked up at the clock that was high on the wall; he only had two more hours and then he could go home and sleep.

"But I don't understand why you……." Braden heard Jay's upset voice drift towards him.

"Then when are you coming back, Erica?" Braden was surprised to hear the desperation in Jay's voice. They couldn't possibly be breaking up again, that made no sense. Recently Erica and Jay had become happier together than Braden had ever seen them, why would Erica leave now? "Why won't you tell me where you are though?" Hmm, Braden thought that this was odd too. Erica wouldn't usually keep such basic information from Jay, there had to be something wrong. "Please, don't hang up." As Jay breathed these words, Braden's heart constricted. How could Erica blatantly hurt Jay this much; she had said just yesterday how much she loved him.

As Jay put the phone back on the receiver in pitiful defeat, Braden casually walked into the room pretending as if he had heard nothing. "Was that Erica," he questioned airily.

All Jay could do was nod as he looked down at the floor sadly. Then, he shook his head violently as if snapping back to reality and gave Braden a smile, "Yeah, and as it turns out, I think we're going to have to hire someone else to help out at the shop now."

"Why?" he asked as if he didn't already know.

"Erica quit and is on vacation." Jay said this matter-of-factly. Braden looked into his eyes and couldn't see any of the previous hurt in the Australian's round face.

"Oh" was all Braden could manage to say. He was thinking about why Jay thought that it was necessary to lie to him and say that Erica was 'on vacation'. Obviously it wasn't true because people don't just pick up and leave on some random day for a vacation. Usually a person gives warning to where they are going.

"I guess I should get the now hiring sign out then," Jay added briskly. It was odd how Jay could keep all of his emotions at bay and pretend like he didn't care that Erica was gone.

"Mm hmm," Braden said in slow agreement as he walked behind the register to check out a customer. He still couldn't shake how odd he felt about Erica's little 'vacation'.

**………………………………**

Three days passed by and the only people that seemed to apply to the surf shop were the ones that knew not a thing about surfing. The last sandy haired teenager that tried to get a job here didn't even know that you could wax a surfboard. It was frustrating to have all these useless applicants and not one of them have the least amount of potential. With Erica gone, Braden had to work a lot more too and he didn't like that. He wanted Jay to just pick the next loser that walks in the door because he couldn't take it if he had to work another long day.

As Braden was bitterly thinking to himself, he was placing some of the new items they had in stock on the back shelf. He was still deep in thought when a cold finger tapped his shoulder. This took him by such surprise that he jumped and to his horror he dropped all of the stuff he had in his hands on the floor. As all of the items pathetically clunked to the ground he spun around in embarrassment and fury to see who had cause him all that trouble.

He groaned as he set eyes upon the girl who had seen him make an utter fool of himself; she was gorgeous. Her impossibly long, jet black, hair bounced playfully in dazzling curls as she giggled at him. Her eyes also danced in a mocking way as he sputtered, trying to think of what to say. That penetrating stare was making him feel even more inferior than he already felt and soon he couldn't hold eye contact with her any longer so he quickly bent down to retrieve the fallen items.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you." She looked at him in a less mocking and kinder way this time. She seemed to be smiling with her eyes, which, Braden noticed, were beautiful. They were bright yellow like the sun that shown outside on the streets of Playa Linda, but the shape of them were catlike and made her look mischievous.

"Naw, it was my fault, I wasn't paying attention." Braden stuttered while still gathering all the stuff from off the floor. He noticed her drop down to her knees as she helped him gather everything. "You don't have to help…I got it"

"Well, that's just it, I want to," she said with a crooked smile. When he raised his eyebrows confusedly until she added, "I saw the help wanted sign outside and I thought—"

Braden nodded in understanding and replied, "Let me just take these items in the back and then I'll ask you a few questions." He was glad to notice that he managed not to stutter this time when he talked to her.

"Okay" she stood up as he did and watched him go back and put the objects away only to return five minutes later.

"Well," he said nervously once he came back to the exact spot he had stood in before. She made him feel nervous and he couldn't understand why. How could someone as small and innocent looking make him feel like the littler one? "Do you know anything about surfing?" He knew this was a vague question, but considering how many "no's" he had gotten when he asked the other applicants that question, he thought it was best to know.

"Yeah, I used to surf with a team when I was still living farther up south." She answered while looking around curiously at the shop she was standing in.

"And you know the difference between a long and short board?" this was such a stupid question, but he had to ask. A blonde girl with a pixie-like haircut had come in earlier not knowing the answer to it.

"Of course I do" Sienna tilted her head in amazement at the blatancy of the question.

"And you know that a surf board can, in fact, be waxed?" Braden said still shuddering at the stupidity of the sandy haired boy from earlier.

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Trust me," he smiled, "to the other people that wanted this job, those were the difficult questions."

"I think I'll ace this then," she said with a twinkle in her eye. "I've been surfing since I was seven!"

"Then the job is yours," Braden stated happily. "You start on Thursday." He was pleased that Jay and him had come to an agreement earlier that morning that the first person to apply, that actually knew what they were doing, should get the job. And this girl seemed to know about surfing.

"Oh, that's it?" she asked while furrowing her eyebrows.

"Yep, let me go get a schedule and we can put your name down for—" he stopped in midstep. While turning around to look at her, "What is your name by the way?"

"I'm Sienna" she held out her hand confidently and he walked over and took it.

"I'm Braden Westerly" he looked at her trying to seem confident and nonchalant, but that just wasn't him. He couldn't help but be completely infatuated by her, which made him fidgety. Once he withdrew his hand from hers he stood there quite dumbly not knowing what to do.

She smiled amusedly as if she was enjoying this awkward silence and finally she asked him with a chuckle, "Weren't you going to go and put my name on the schedule?"

"Oh right," he answered back lamely. He couldn't help but feel his cheeks grow hot with embarrassment as he shuffled to get the schedules. He was really going to have to pull himself together especially if he planned on asking her out sometime.

Sienna was smirking at him as he came back to stand in front of her once again. It seemed to him that she found his embarrassment extremely amusing. Maybe that is why she is so intimidating. The way she looks at you and you can tell that she wants to laugh at you. The way Sienna seemed to hold herself upright with her shoulders squared with determination, as if challenging you to get on her bad side.

It was astonishing to Braden how someone with such a small and frail body could still seem so womanly and strong. He gave her a quick once over, observing her hourglass figure before noticing Jay stroll through the shop's doors.

"Jay, come meet your new employee," Braden said, when he realized that Jay was so distracted that he probably wouldn't even have noticed them if they were dancing around naked.

"Wha?" asked Jay absentmindedly

"I've actually found someone who knows a little bit about surfing, shocking, huh?" Braden exclaimed.

"Well, Well," he said as his face lit up in delight. He then looked at Sienna who was smiling shyly at him. Braden noticed how innocent she looked as she batted her eyelashes. "I'm Jay, and I don't know what Braden has told you yet, but you'll be learning all you need to know from him, not me, sadly. I'll have both of you working at the same time for two weeks, so you can learn what you need to and then I'll let you work on your own."

Sienna nodded in understanding and asked sweetly, "So what time on Thursday should I be here?"

"Ten o'clock" he said before turning to Braden, "That goes for you too. Now it's fifteen minutes till the end of your shift, but I'll let you go early as long as you remember to tell Ava that she needs to call Erica for me."

Braden frowned as Jay said this but nodded. He wondered why he would want Ava talking to Erica. He didn't like it when things went on in the house that he didn't know about, but thought that he would ask about it later, when Jay was more inclined to confide in him.

"Alright, well, it was nice meeting you miss……" Jay looked at Sienna and waited for her to finish his sentence.

"Sienna Harper" she said quickly.

"Yes, Miss Harper, I'm glad to have you working here, but I really have to be getting to work."

Braden started walking towards the door with Sienna at his heels. He turned to walk back to the house, and he noticed Sienna turning the other way. Before he could stop himself he murmured to her, "I'll see you on Thursday."

"Oh, I can't wait" she replied. As Braden walked home he tried to think whether she actually meant this or if she was being sarcastic. He sighed. As he thought to himself_, She is way out of my league…_


	2. In Close Proximity

_I feel like I'm pushing the relationship with Sienna and Braden too much, but thats only because i have so many ideas for this story that i want to get them out real quick b4 i forget them! l0l anywayz...enjoy_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or it's characters.**

Braden lay awake that night his thoughts filled with Jay, Erica, and, "Sienna" he breathed out loud. He didn't know why he couldn't get this girl out of his head because while she was strikingly beautiful, he had seen other girls just as gorgeous if not more so. He didn't stay up at night thinking about them, however. Braden tried to think what made her so god damn special. The only thing that came to mind was her impeccable ability to make the people around her feel like shit. This should make him dislike her, because to him that was a quality that only the beautiful and stuck-up could obtain, but something about the way she did it, made him think that it had nothing to do with her thinking that she was better; he thought that it was because she simply just found other people's discomfort hysterical.

That was another thing. Maybe it was because she was always smiling, even though it was to silently laugh at other's shortcomings, but it was smiling nonetheless. There was nothing like it when a beautiful girl showed that million dollar smile. Braden mused as he thought of the other gorgeous girls that had strutted their way through Playa Linda. They had never smiled, but simply put on a look of disgust as they viewed those unworthy of them. He rolled over in his bed while he asked himself why he thought Sienna was so different than these other gorgeous girls. He had only had a brief (and fairly embarrassing) conversation with her. He had no way of knowing how she really was.

Then Braden smiled as a very nice thought came to mind. He would have two whole weeks to get to know the real Sienna. With them working side by side for hours on end, he was bound to find out more about her and get closer to her. He took comfort in this knowledge and closed his eyes groggily. Maybe he did actually have a shot at being with Sienna.

………………………………………………

"So you've lived here since you were five?" he asked Sienna as they lifted a surf board together to go on display. He had been successfully finding out everything he could possibly think of about Sienna since ten o'clock this morning.

"Yeah, but I went to a private school in New Hampshire, until just last year. Then,my parents let me go to school here." She replied while struggling to click the board into the notch that would hold it safely in place. After a couple more tries, Braden gently leaned over and did it for her. He noticed how close their faces came to each other and from close up, he could see faint, miniature freckles on her petite nose. Damn, she was hot.

He smiled as he straightened up, slightly proud of his smooth move to get closer to Sienna. "Why'd your parents let you switch?"

She meekly smiled and said, "It's a long and dramatic story about my dysfunctional family that I don't think, in our five hours that we have left, I could tell."

He nodded at her, careful not to press the subject, but thinking about it in his mind. He was very curious about her and this past that she didn't want to tell. "Now now, what makes your family so dysfunctional?"

She grinned, "My, my, aren't we curious?" Braden had quickly discovered in this first hour of conversing with her, that she was excellent at avoiding questions or topics that she didn't want to discuss.

"Well what can I say, I have a soft spot for stories about crazy families," he said, hoping that he sounded half as casual and relaxed as she did.

In case his face deceived him and showed the eagerness that he had inside himself to know, he turned and motioned for her to follow him to the shelves on the other side of the store.

"I guess I can summarize the heroic little tale just for you," she stated wickedly. The way she said 'just for you' made Braden's hear soar and then he quickly reminded himself that he was in fact the most pathetic man on the planet for getting excited over _that._ Sienna cleared her throat and started, "Well, my father was a pretty damn wealthy man and he always wanted everyone to know it. That's why he sent me to that private school. That school had only the richest, snobbiest girls I have ever had to endure."

"He _was _a very wealthy man?" Braden asked while emphasizing her use of past tense.

"He died last year and that's why I was allowed to go to school here." Sienna was smiling but her grin dimmed a little as she then added, "But I would have had to leave that school either way because, in my father's will he made sure that nothing was left to me or my mother. We couldn't afford the school anymore."

"Whoah.." Braden said before he could stop himself. She gave him another one of her little smiles that appeared to mock him before adding, "Your family really is dysfunctional."

He was afraid that she might get angry or slap him because that was a highly insensitive thing to say and that is what most girls do when a guy says something like that, but she merely laughed and remarked, "I told you! I do not lie, Braden Westerly; out of all the things I do, lying is not one of them." She winked at him and he couldn't help but feel like she was making a joke but one that he was left out of. One that maybe she had slightly with herself.

"Really and what are these other things that you do, if you don't mind me asking?" Braden liked the way they could go back and forth with each other. She was always so damn happy all the time, that eventually his intimidation by her melted away. His infatuation with her though, only grew.

Her yellow eyes grew bigger in an innocent manner as she replied, "I don't mind you asking at all, but I don't think I will answer you. I'll leave _that _up to your imagination" _There she was again, avoiding another topic_, thought Braden to himself.

They were stocking surfing gear as they spoke and Braden took his time while folding a particular garment trying to think of what to say. As he placed it on the shelf he asked with one eyebrow raised, "Any more family drama that you wouldn't mind telling me?" He was shocked at how fun this was talking to her. For everything he dished out, she gave back to him with excessive force. She was quite witty and Braden found that he liked that in a girl.

"You want to know who my dad left all that money to?" she looked at him devilishly as she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. He nodded with an anxious smirk on his face as she declared, "My cousin Wynnie and her dog Rufus!"

"her dog too?" he asked while chuckling. He didn't even know you could leave money to a dog.

"Yep" she responded while shaking her head. "That left the entire family with a bit of a shock. Though my mom thinks he left the money to the dog as well just to spite us."

Braden thought it was weird how she could find matters like these so humorous but decided not to say anything. Sienna and him were getting closer and that's exactly what he wanted. He couldn't shake though the wonderment in how someone could just not care that their own father had screwed them over.

"He was quite a feisty old man" she added thoughtfully when Braden said nothing.

"Hey you two!" there came an extremely chipper Australian voice from behind Sienna which startled her as she looked kindly at the smiling Jay, "How are you doing on your first day?"

"Magnificent" she said with laughter in her voice and a smile that crept up onto her lips "And by the way, love the accent you got there."

Jay gave a small snort and laughed at her before professing a "Why thank you!"

Braden took this chance to steal a look at the clock and was surprised that they were already due for their break, which was probably why Jay had come. As if reading his mind Jay commanded, "Now it's time for you two to get out of my store for a half hour"

They both gladly obliged and Braden wondered if Sienna was planning on spending her break with him or not. He really hoped that she would and sure enough, she turned to him and asked, "Where do you want to go?"

"Hmmm…" Braden thought to himself what he was in the mood for. He stood there thinking about it for a couple moments.

"You do know that this is not, in fact, a life or death situation and that if you don't decide within a minute where you want to go, I will just have to chose!" she spoke these words in a lively way while spinning to take in the heat from the sun.

Braden was taken aback how the sun glared down upon her hair and managed to light up her face in a simply breathtaking way. Braden was so intent upon staring at Sienna that she started tapping her foot at him, "Fine. We're going to eat some slimy Chinese food then" She grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the restaurant that had a sign with what looked to be Chinese letters on it.

Braden groaned; he hated Chinese food. She gave him a satisfied grin, "You should have chosen faster than."

He shook his head and as he was doing so he finally noticed the hand that was on his arm and just looking at her hand on his flesh surged him with some new found confidence. Before it could wear off he asked Sienna, "After work, do you want to hang out?"

He held his breath for the answer, but he did so in vain, "Sure," came that heavenly whisper.


	3. A Movie My Ass

_I guess I haven't really made Sienna the "innocent" girl that I had originallythought I was going to. My ideas just kind of flowed in a different way once i started typing, but that's okay. The story works better this way._

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or any of it's characters.**

Braden shifted his weight uncomfortably as he entered the living room of an enormous mansion, filled with drunken teenagers. Sienna was brightly leading the way across the party towards a small group of girls who were, of course, beautiful. Braden didn't know how he really ended up here. He had asked Sienna to hang out and then she said that they could stop by her friend's house to watch a movie. Braden let out a humph, _movie my ass, _he thought to himself.

"Braden stop standing there looking dumb, we have enough boys doing that tonight, we don't want you to do so too." Sienna sighed and pushed him closer toward the girls who were blatantly staring at him. He could tell they were judging him and he hated that feeling. He didn't really like these people, they seemed stuck up and Braden didn't enjoy surrounding himself with people like this. He also wasn't appreciating Sienna's patronizing tone. He wasn't in a good mood and he couldn't really point on the reason why. He was out with Sienna right now, wasn't he? He should be ecstatic.

"I want you to meet my friends, Braden," she said this in a kinder manor this time. Thank God she wasn't mocking him for once. "This is Judah," she pointed to a girl who looked like a slightly shorter version Paris Hilton. Hopefully this girl was a tad smarter than the celebrity she resembled or else he didn't think he could be around her for more than five minutes. "and This is Demi," this girl was obviously Italian or something of the sort thought Braden, as he admired her complexion. She had that magical tone to her skin and her smile seemed so white that it was mesmerizing. Still, she wasn't as beautiful as Sienna, "and here is Cecily," a girl with warm brown hair and soft round eyes looked at him coaxingly. Her softness made Braden ignore that she wasn't as pretty as the girls around her. She seemed to notice his intent stare on her and she blushed. "Now if you're done staring at darling Cece…" Sienna began.

"I wasn't staring; I was just trying to be nice," stated Braden hotly even though he knew she was right.

She completely ignored him as she turned and exclaimed, "And this hottie over here is Vegas!" The girl that Sienna pulled quickly towards her was utterly beautiful. Her red hair was so long it completely covered the top half of her long slender body. Braden had to admit, Vegas was gorgeous. Her grey eyes stared at him, trying to make eye contact with him, and when he finally looked at her straight on, he noticed that there was a hint of lavender that shone brightly in her eyes. Damn, she was beautiful.

The girls all sort of formed a circle around Braden and he couldn't help but feel a little like a Pimp. "So how come we haven't seen you before?" asked the Italian girl that Braden thought he remembered being of the name Demi.

"He's a surfer" cut in Sienna simply, but the girls around him nodded in understanding as they looked him up and down again. Braden had no idea what his being a surfer had to do with anything but he said nothing.

As a trey of drinks went by, Sienna thrust one into his hand and told all of her friends to take one too. Braden was slightly surprised by her sudden bossiness and wanted to know something. "Is this your house or something?"

"No, why would you say that?"

"I dunno, you were just ordering your friends around like you owned the place so I thought…"

The Vegas girl laughed and said, "He's got a point, Sienna."

"When you're right, you're right!" she said throwing her hands up as if in defeat. "But you humor me Vegas, by letting me order you around in your own house."

"This is your house?" asked Braden. He was surprised that anyone could live in this place. It seemed as if it would be quite the work out to go from the end of one room to the other.

"Yeah, are you impressed?" she paused and after seeing him nod she added slightly slurred from the alcohol, "You should see the pool!"

"Oh my god Vegas, you have to show him!" added Sienna who Braden noticed hadn't taken a drink. He however, was gladly grabbing a second drink while the Vegas girl dragged him away from Sienna.

She gave him a lopsided smile as he was being dragged away before turning to talk to her other friends. So that is why he had been taken here. She had wanted to set him up with one of her friends. He frowned; that obviously meant that she didn't really care for him in that way, yet. But did it really matter? Why should he go for Sienna when Vegas was just as gorgeous and she actually wanted him. Sienna mocked him too, which, even though he only knew her a day, annoyed him to no end at times. Vegas didn't seem very annoying at all.

Braden grabbed a third drink as he topped off the second one and grasped more tightly to Vegas's hand. When they arrived to the pool area, it was secluded and no one was in there. Usually at parties a pool was the first place everyone went. "How come no one else is here?"

"Because I didn't want it to get trashed so I told everyone it was being fixed," Vegas gave a slight smile as she stumbled backward. She caught herself and started laughing, "I am such a sloppy drunk!"

"If you're not sloppy, then you're not drunk," Braden forgot where he had heard this saying and he racked his brain to remember. Maybe he was just clever and thought of it himself, _Yes, that was it_, he told himself. She seemed to find this hilarious and fell to a pile on the ground with laughter. He started to chuckle uncontrollably as well and fell to the floor next to her.

Soon the laughing stopped though and he forgot why he was on the ground. It seemed like a weird place to be, but Braden just stared at the sky, aware of how it seemed to spin. _Those were some damn good drinks,_ he thought to himself.

"I want to go in the pool," said Vegas, "I am getting hot" She was rubbing the skin on her arms which Braden thought was dumb because you do that when you're cold, not hot. He giggled like a little school girl as he thought to himself that she was more of a Paris Hilton than Judah was.

"I am hot too," he said suddenly forgetting what he was thinking. He totally abandoned thinking from that point onward though. He jumped into the pool with his clothes still on. As he plunged to the bottom and rose back up to the surface he spotted Vegas laughing at him.

"You are supposed to swim naked, silly!" Vegas snickered and Braden realized that she only had her panties on. She slowly slipped them off and got in the water as gently as a drunken girl could. She waded towards him and he slowly took his shirt off. He was drinking in the sight of her walking seductively to him, her breasts rising slowly with her breath. The last thing he remembered, was thinking to himself that Sienna's friends rocked!


	4. The Rich and Crazy

_hmm...I don't really know where I'm going anymore with this story because Ihave veered completely from what i had originally intended. I think I like this better though_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or its characters**

"Yeah, he's still passed out," came an annoyingly happy voice. There were birds chirping in the background which was infuriating considering how with each chirp his head felt that much closer to exploding.

Braden winced as he felt himself coming to. He felt like shit. His head ached, he felt dirty, and his stomach wasn't feeling so hot either. "Oh, Sienna, I think he's awake now."

"Braden?" Sienna's voice sounded like she was on the verge of cracking up.

He grunted and turned over in the bed he was lying in. All he wanted was to go back to sleep and to not wake up until the pain went away. He heard someone sigh and then felt an ice cold sensation hit his body. Sienna had poured a bucket of freezing water on top of his head. "WHAT THE HELL," he screamed while sitting bolt upright. He wasn't much of a morning person, especially when he had a hangover.

"Sorry, we just thought we should wash the shaving cream off…" laughed Vegas as she stared at him shivering still under the covers.

"The shaving cream? What are you talking about?" asked Braden still out of it.

"We were having a little fun while you were passed out," winked Sienna while trying hard to keep back a snicker.

"Huh?" questioned Braden who was in no mood to use his mind to figure out what the fuck she was talking about.

"We did the ol' 'put shaving cream on your hand and tickle your nose' trick." Vegas paused to let out a grin, "It was all over your face."

"Oh," replied Braden rubbing his eyes. Finally, he actually looked around the room that he was in, and it was not his own. It was actually much bigger and grander looking than his own room. It was completely white, except for certain golden accessories and furniture. Braden suddenly shook himself, Why wasn't he at home in his own room? "Where am I?"

Sienna raised her eyebrows and laughed at him before answering, "At Vegas's house, of course. Don't you remember last night?" she gave a quick glance at her friend "You were pretty wild."

His eyes grew wide as he realized what she just said. "So I never went home last night?"

"Don't worry, I had my dad call your Aunt Ava and say that you were spending the night." Vegas ran her hands through her long red hair.

"and my Aunt agreed with that?" Braden didn't think that sounded much like Ava.

"My father can be pretty persuasive." The way Vegas said this made him think that her father was one of those fat, rich, bald men that expect everyone to do what they want.

"So…" He paused; he needed to know something but he forgot what he was going to ask. Oh, now he remembered, "What time is it?"

"Ten after noon," replied Sienna while trying to push Braden out of the bed.

But she need not have tried, because the second Braden heard what time it was he shot up out of bed and, when realizing that he was naked, grabbed a sheet while shouting, "I'm going to be late for practice!" He was darting around the room trying to find his clothes, which was difficult while holding a sheet around your waist.

"_Surfing_ practice I presume?" asked Sienna, unnerved by her glimpse of Braden in his birthday suit.

"Yes, and I've been late every day this week," said Braden exasperated.

"Were you sleeping off hangovers then too?"

"NO" shouted Braden. Sienna sure was gorgeous, but right now he was not in the mood for her taunting. "Ugh, and I don't even have my board or my suit with me!"

Vegas rolled her eyes and stated, "We have a suit that you could use. Do you like green, blue, orange or red?"

Braden looked relieved when he answered, "Thanks, Green."

"Yeah, yeah!" she said waving her arm at him as she left to go retrieve the suit.

"So…what do you think of Vegas?" asked Sienna while pulling on the curls in her hair.

Braden looked at her as he thought that he heard a bit of jealousy mixed in her tone, but when he saw her excitement, he knew he imagined it. She looked thrilled that he had hooked up with her best friend. "She's great," he replied while tightening his grip on the sheet that was covering him.

"Well then, it's settled. You should go out with her!" Sienna declared while walking towards the door.

"Come again?"

She kept on walking out of the room and Braden followed her as she said over her shoulder, "You like her, she likes you. You two have already hooked up and seen each other at your worst." She smiled at this last statement but then continued, "Plus, she's hot. So what's stopping you two from being together?"

"I kind of just wanted to decide for myself though….." Braden replied uneasily. He couldn't think of a reason not to be with Vegas but he was damned it he was going to prove Sienna right.

"Trust me, you decided last night in that pool, and then on the pool _table_," she bit her lip as she turned towards him and he almost ran into her, "Then, you decided one last and final time in that bed!" She raised her eyebrows at him with that mocking grin as she looked at him.

"I don't remember the pool table or the bedroom," Braden said while feeling his face growing red. Wow, Sienna sure was blunt.

"All the more reason to go out with Vegas, it'll create more memories," she smiled sweetly and gave him that demure look.

He sighed. The fact was, he did kind of want to be with Vegas now. Sienna had some great powers of persuasion. "I guess you're….right." He found it difficult to give Sienna the satisfaction of being right. "Vegas is great. I do want to be with her."

"Aha!" She flashed him an evil grin and her eyes glinted happily as she looked behind Braden, "Vegas, Braden fucked you and now he can't get enough. You want to go out with him?"

Braden was embarrassed by this but couldn't help laughing. Sienna was quite different than he had first thought she was. He had thought she was intimidating, innocent, and stuck up. Now though, he saw that she was sarcastic, blunt, and had a mouth dirtier than a Mexican taco stand.

Vegas was now looking him in the eye to make sure that Braden really did want to go out with her and it wasn't just Sienna being obnoxious. When she was satisfied that that was the truth she said, "Of course!" She walked up to Braden and gave him a hell of a kiss on the lips before shoving the wet suit playfully into his hands. "You're late, remember?"

"Oh, geez! You're right!" and with a distracted smile he sprinted out of the house and towards his practice. As he was running steadily to the beach, Braden got the feeling that dating Vegas would mean entering the world that he had only had a glimpse of last night. He was going to see how the rich and crazy lived.

…………………………………

"I can't believe you were late again, Braden! I mean what do you do that is so important it can't wait until after practice?" Aunt Ava was yelling at Braden for his tardiness at surfing practice yet again. "Your coach is calling me so much to complain about you that I am practically expecting his call now!"

He couldn't help but roll his eyes at his Aunt. A day ago, she hated how much time Braden spent surfing and not helping out around the house. Now she was yelling at him for not getting the full 3 hours of surfing in.

"Don't roll your eyes at me!" Aunt Ava looked at him shocked by his carlessness.

He immediatly regretted his act of defiance and replied autmatically, "I'm sorry, Aunt Ava." He was using this phrase a lot lately. "I really didn't know how late it was. No one woke me up and I..."

"Well, you can depend on me waking you up from now on. No more sleepovers until I think you can handle getting yourself to practice on time." she shook her head at him in fury. Ava didn't want to have to argue with Braden, but he was slacking off lately. She couldn't understand why he was always late. The only explanations her mind could think of were bad ones, and she chose not to think about what he was doing. She had tried forcing this information from him but she only got usless answers from him like, "I lost track of time".

"Alright then. No sleepovers. Got it," replied Braden while messaging his temples slightly. He would say anything to get his Aunt to stop yelling. His head was still aching, and he knew it was halfway because of how hard the waves were pounding him this morning. "Can I take a shower now?"

She sighed and looked at him. "Are you sick?"

He stiffened at her question, "No, just the water was rough today. Gave me a headache."

Ava looked at him suspiciously as she nodded and said reluctantly, "Go take a shower."

He quickly jumped up and raced to his room before Ava could think of anything else to yell at him for. Once he reached his room, he slammed his door shut and while turning took his shirt off. "JESUS CHRIST!" Vegas and Sienna were both sitting on his bed laughing at him. They were in their bathing suits and while they were dry, he could tell that they had been swimming earlier. He was taken aback that they were both sprawled across his bed, half naked nonetheless. He quieted his voice down to an urgent whisper, "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Braden, what's the matter?" came his Aunts concerned, but still suspicous voice.

He stared angrily at both the girls who suddenly went quiet on the bed before answering as calmly as he could, "It's nothing Aunt Ava, just Derek messed up my room again."

"Oh well, let me see. I ju--"

"I am naked right now. I'll clean it later, but i really just want to take a shower." He knew he was being a jerk to his Aunt right now, but hopefully this would make her back off.

"Well...uh, okay then"

Once Braden heard her footsteps growing fainter he turned towards them and whispered, "What are you two doing here?"

"Can you come out tonight at like 8?" Vegas asked, completely ignoring his anger.

Sienna stood up without bothering to wait for a response from Braden and put her hand on her hip, "Meet us at the docks at 8 then!"

"But I don't know if my Aunt will let me." He replied.

Vegas gave him a smirk, "Than figure out a way, because I rented a yacht and I wouln't want it to go to waste."

Braden couldn't help but feel his jaw drop. She was filthy rich, he knew that, but it still surprised him just _how_ rich she really was. Sienna seemed pleased at his amazement and said, "So at the docks, 8 o'clock. Find a way to be there or else Vegas will be all depressed and mopey all night."

"But..." They both gave him puppy dog eyes and he was done for, "Alright, don't have to ask me twice, I'm there."

Sienna quickly gave him an appreciative nod before giving Vegas a sly smile and strolling out of his room. Vegas, however, stayed on the bed and watched Siennaclose the sliding doorbefore getting up. She came over to where Braden was standing stock still staring at her, and nuzzled him with her nose. She gave him small kisses on his neck before whispering in his ear, "You aren't going to regret this Braden."

He knew for a fact he wouldn't as she slid his pants down and pushed him into the shower.


	5. A Different World

_I am such an insomniac, I wrote this at 6 in the morning and i hadn't a wink of sleep so excuse the bad writing. Hope you still like it!_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or it's characters**

"Don't your parents mind that your out all night?" asked Braden disbelievingly. He already knew the answer, but he still found it shocking.

"Don't you mean, do my parents even notice?" Vegas shot back while rolling her eyes with a smile. It was already midnight and the little yacht soiree was a total success. There had to be over a hundred and fifty people milling about the enormous boat and Braden was shocked when he saw the band called Straylight Run come up to the stage and perform. He was even more in awe when Vegas had said while motioning towards the band, "Sorry I couldn't get Maroon 5, it was last minute so they were the best I could get"

Braden had stared at her blankly before saying sarcastically, "I think I could manage to forgive you."

Sienna had come by a few times as well to see how the two "lovebirds" were doing. She seemed particularly proud that she had gotten them together which bothered Braden, but he didn't even want to think about why.

Now it seemed as if she was to visit them again, except with a little arm candy this time. A tall and extremely built man had his arm drunkenly around Sienna's waist as she steadily guided him towards Vegas and Braden. "Look who I found Veg!" gasped Sienna breathlessly as she reached them.

"Boston, could you try to hold your liquor better!" She voiced in an annoyed tone. Then she looked at Braden and said reluctantly, "Braden, this is my brother."

They shook hands unsteadily as Boston was as drunk as a pig and he couldn't help but see his hand slide lower on Sienna's back. Braden decided not to look at that, but instead he tried to indulge himself in a conversation.

"How come you're not boozing it up like Boston over here?" Braden knew that he sounded a tad bit vindictive, but he didn't really care.

"Sienna doesn't drink. She's too obsessed with her grades and being perfect." Vegas answered for her friend, and Braden was surprised with what she said. He never took Sienna for the studious type.

Sienna shot Vegas a sour look before saying, "I just think that I can have fun without ruining my future."

"How would drinking a little Spanish Sherry ruin your future, doll?" asked Boston while slurring his words.

"What if the cops came and busted this party? You all know my father wouldn't spare me a night in jail for drinking, he would actually thoroughly enjoy it in fact." Braden could hear the hatred in Sienna's voice and he was surprised, but it was quickly gone as she continued, "not to mentioned I would be benched for the first few weeks of tennis _and_ dance once school started!"

He chocked on his vodka, "You play tennis?"

"She also is in the drama club, choir, vice president of the student counsel, in the French and yearbook club."

"Not to mention she can shake her ass in that little dance club," smirked the stumbling Boston.

Sienna gave a fake little smile at Boston and said through clenched teeth, "I think he already knew that one."

Vegas sighed and said, "You two are like a married couple! Go away and have babies and complain about gas prices, me and Braden are going to go downstairs so entertain yourselves."

Braden couldn't help but notice that as he walked away Boston and Sienna seemed to be arguing about something. He was grabbing her arm, which she had risen to slap him. "I swear; they have just about the most dramatic relationship I've ever seen. Fighting one minute, professing their love the next." Vegas was murmuring mainly to herself, while dragging Braden down the stairs.

…………………………

Sienna was glaring at Boston angrily as he was going on and on about the very topic that she despised, sex. He was obsessed, and she knew that it was expected seeing as he was a guy, but honestly, he could never give it a break. They had never had sex in their seven months of being together and she knew that that was hard for him. Boston was used to having sex and the fact that he stuck it out for seven months without it, made Sienna feel really special, but not special enough to actually fuck him. She was starting to well up in tears as she realized that Boston had had enough of her games. She knew that she had been toying with him and it really wasn't fair.

They were going to break up and there was not a thing that Sienna could, or would want to do to stop it. She had known for a while now that this was coming, but she had hoped that it would wait until right before he had to go to college. Now she would have to see him every time she visited Vegas.

"I really am sorry, Sienna, but I am just a man and I can't be played like this anymore." For how drunk he was, Boston seemed really sincere and heartbroken.

"I know you are, and I am sorry too. I want to be with you but it's…..just" she looked at his expectant face. He wanted her to confide in him. He wanted her to tell him what was keeping them from screwing each other senseless because he knew that she wanted to. Something was holding her back. She sighed; she wasn't going to tell him. "I've got to go"

And with that she left him in the crowd as he called after her, "Sienna, please! Wait! I love….." She ignored him though as she rushed to the bathroom bumping into an old friend. "Here's fifty bucks, can I have some?"

He handed it to her and looked at Sienna's crying face, "You want me to make it all better sweetheart?" She wasn't in the mood for his sexual remarks as she took the bag and went in the bathroom

She carelessly opened the plastic that came between her and what she longed for, and then got her credit card out. She made five thin lines of cocaine on the side of the sink and snorted them in 15 seconds flat. Soon her crying ceased and she just started blankly at the wall while sitting on the toilet. _Fuck…I can do coke, but I won't drink alcohol. How fucking ridiculous is that_? Sienna knew why she did coke but not alcohol though. She did coke because of the instant relief it gave her of her problems, even if just for an hour. All she wanted was peace, and that's what coke gave her, peace. Alcohol just wasn't the same, cocaine was the best thing going in Sienna's life and she wasn't about to stop it. She was losing Boston, and this was her only comfort, even if it couldn't keep her warm at night.

………………….

By the time Braden had slipped silently into his bed, it was almost 6 in the morning. He had snuck out at eight telling Aunt Ava that he would be doing his summer reading assignment on his computer then getting to bed early so he could surf in the morning before it became crowded. He was a little proud of this lie because it was kind of believable.

He had expected to be able to go right to sleep once he got settled into bed, but he couldn't help marveling at the night he just had. Him and Vegas had banged each other five times, and he remembered every single one of those times clearly, even though he was drinking straight vodka all night. The only bad part of the yacht party was that he had Sienna in the back of his mind all night after he saw that argument with her boyfriend.

He shook this firmly from his mind, _No_, he told himself determinedly. _Vegas is better for me anyways, just let it go._

Braden did let it go and for the rest of the week, he didn't see Sienna at all except for at work. Vegas and him were going on more 'dates' instead of just parties, and she didn't even seem to really notice that she wasn't by Vegas' side all the time anymore. Sienna seemed a little sadder when he had gone to work with her, but it wasn't as if she was crying or anything, she just was quiet for the fact that she was Sienna. He didn't ask her about it because he figured that maybe this was Sienna when she was in a different mood other than happy. He comforted himself with this thought.

Besides Sienna, Braden also had to think about Jay. While he appeared to be cheerful and lighthearted in front of people, at home he was like a moping woman. He sat at home with a barrel of ice cream watching soap operas until 2 and that's when he forced himself to put on a brave face and go to the surf shop. It was pathetic. Jay missed Erica terribly and every day that she was gone was a little more hope sliding away. It was becoming clear to Braden that Erica must have meant this as a break up or that she wasn't ever coming back. Either way, Jay was left alone and confused.

Whenever Braden tried to talk to him about Erica, Jay would shake his head and say that Erica was on vacation and was coming back real soon. It was heartbreaking seeing the look in Jay's eyes when he said this; it was like he was trying so hard to convince himself that it was true, but at the same time they both knew it wasn't.

Braden also started to think about the new world he had entered since starting a relationship with Vegas. He remembered his thoughts on entering the world of the "Rich and Crazy". It was funny how he was absolutely right. They were rich, and fucking crazy to boot. But most importantly, it was literally a different world.

**Read and Review...pLeAsE!**


	6. Admire the Master

_This chapter was fun for me to write, especially the end, though i had some trouble in spots, I hope my lack of sleep won't effect my writing too much l0l_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or any of it's characters**

Braden awoke cheerfully early in his bed as the sunlight shone through the glass doors in his room. He and Vegas hadn't been out real late or anything, but they had gone out to the beach and he was trying to teach her how to surf. She was kind of hard to teach because she felt the urge to laugh at everything he said, which made him feel awkward. He had a feeling she got this little habit from Sienna, or maybe Sienna got it from her. Who knew, and anyway, what did it matter? He was having the time of his life with Vegas and what they had together was the ultimate summer romance. Braden's cheerfulness dimmed a little as he thought of this. He knew that when school started, that him and Vegas would probably end because she wasn't the kind of girl who wanted a long distance relationship. He wasn't sure he was that kind of guy either. Still, he didn't know how he'd be able to let her go by the end of the summer.

With how close they had gotten in these past weeks, Braden wondered how much closer they would become. Would he even be able to let her go? The question lingered uneasily in his mind as he rose from bed. He told himself that he would worry about it when the time came, for now, him and Vegas still have half the summer left. And with that in mind, he was going to head to the beach before practice to show his coach that he was still dedicated to the team.

"Jay, please, listen to me, this has to stop!" Braden could hear Ava's pleas from his room and curiosity got the better of him. He leaned on the door and listened in.

"Can we wait until a commercial to talk about this? Hope is just about to tell Rick--"

"Would you listen to yourself?" interrupted Ava as if she was frightened of him and Braden had to admit, hearing Jay talk excitedly about soap operas was no laughing matter; if he was doing that, than there was definitely something very wrong. Jay didn't seem to pay attention to Ava's little outburst and he kept shoveling the ice cream in his mouth. "I think that's enough ice cream too. You know it won't make you feel any better."

"I am not eating ice cream to feel better, I am eating it because it tastes good," corrected the delusional Jay.

"How long are you going to go on pretending nothing is wrong?"

"There is nothing wrong." Jay put simply.

Ava couldn't deal with this answer. If Jay would only accept what happened between him and Erica, then he would finally be able to get over it. But if he continued to be in denial….

"If you don't want me to eat ice cream anymore that is just fine," replied Jay curtly.

"This is hardly about ice cream and you know it!" Ava was getting simply exasperated by this attempt to help Jay. He was so far in denial that it was impossible for her reality checks to bring him back. He refused to believe that Erica and him were over.

"All I have heard is you complaining that I like soap operas and the taste of ice cream, and while it may seem a little girly, I am comfortable enough in my manhood to proudly watc—"

"Okay, that's it. I really hoped I wouldn't have to tell you this; that you would learn to move on without hearing this, but your being delusional! Jay, I did call Erica that night that you told me to. And I know I had said that she didn't pick up, but she did." Braden looked through the slit in his door and saw Jay's ears prick up when he heard this. For the first time, his eyes left the television screen. "She said she wasn't coming back. That she was going to Europe with some of her friends, and she wouldn't tell me where."

"Did she tell you why?" his voice sounded strained.

Ava didn't want to tell Jay this, but the sooner he knew, the sooner he could start recovering from his devastation. "She said it was because she was tired of her life going in circles with you and that she wanted more than just a surfer with low-income. Her parents expected more and so did she. She wanted to…."

"Stop" Jay stated. Emotion was vacant from his eyes and he sighed. He stood up slowly throwing the blanket off of him and onto the couch. He put the ice cream down as well and simply walked out of the living room. He didn't go into his bedroom either; he just kept walking, never breaking his stride.

Ava stood their gaping at him. What was he going to do?

………………………………

Later that day, Braden was working at the shop with Sienna. Even though the two weeks where they were supposed to be working side by side was over, Jay had decided that that system worked best. So he made it permanent. They would be working together all the time.

The entire time at work though, Braden was worriedly telling Sienna what he heard between his Aunt and Jay. Then he tantalized what he could do about it. He wanted to help Jay more than he could possibly say. But he didn't know how.

"Break ups are hard no matter what and there is nothing anyone can do or say to make it better." Sienna seemed to be very wise on this topic and Braden wondered why. "In fact, sometimes when people talk and try to make you feel better, sometimes that makes you feel worse because then you know that people are pitying you"

"I never thought about it that way," commented Braden while putting some things in the back room. He decided he mine as well ask her, "You seem to know a lot about this subject."

"Yeah…" she said dryly, "Well, with me and Boston over with, after seven months—"

"You and Boston broke up?" Braden was horrified at himself when he felt a certain smugness about hearing this news. What was the matter with him?

Sienna furrowed her brows, "We've been broken up since the Yacht Party; didn't Vegas tell you?"

Braden shook his head. He saw a certain sadness in her usually twinkling golden eyes, and he realized that the sadness he had seen earlier was because Boston had broken up with her; and he had been too distracted with Vegas to ask her about it. He felt guilty and asked gently, "You want to talk about it?"

She winced, "See that right there, pity. Doesn't feel too great."

"I'm sorry"

Sienna rolled her eyes and showed a flicker of a smile, "Its just as well, we had been on the verge of breaking up for a while, and even if we were still together, I'm grounded anyways."

Braden eyed her to see whether or not she could handle humor to cheer her up. "I didn't know rich girls got grounded."

She grinned, "Well, they don't. I am not a rich girl; you know that! I told you how my dad left me and my mom nothing."

"Yeah but, I figured that……"

"We still had plenty of money left?" asked Sienna her eyes glittering.

"Kind of, well, yeah." He was uncomfortable saying these things out loud. He had been raised that saying this stuff was really rude, but he knew that Sienna loved bluntness. "And I figured your stepfather maybe had some cash lying around, you know?"

"Yeah," she nodded understandably, "you would think, but he doesn't. He is the chief of police in this town so of course he gets paid a good amount of money, but not the amount my mother and I are used to,"

"Oh, your dad is a police man?"

She looked disgusted as she said, "Sadly yes."

"Why sadly?" he smiled, she was getting back to her witty self, slowly, but surely.

"Well, he sort of abuses his cop privileges. Like having his buddies track me down, or pulling my boyfriends over for no reason. He even busts parties all the time, trying to land me in jail or something."

This surprised Braden, he wondered whether or not this was an exaggeration because he knew how it could seem that extreme when you're living with it, but then in real life, it's nothing. He voiced his shock nonetheless by saying a single, "Whoah"

"Yeah well, what can you do right?" she wiggled her eyebrows, "I'll just keep on trucking, I guess."

"And just spend as much time away as possible right?" added Braden jokingly.

She looked up at surprised and stared at him intently for a few moments; her catlike eyes boring into him, trying to tell him without forming the words. She nodded while never losing his gaze as she responded, "Exactly"

Braden thought he got it. That's why she was in all those clubs and sports and associations. She wanted to be away from home as long as possible. That's why she wanted to go to Harvard too. That was so far away that she would never have to see her family again if she didn't want to. _Wow_, Braden thought, _that's kind of sad to hate your home life that much._

He didn't have anytime to reply to this because Jay had just walked through the door looking disheveled. There was no laughter in his eyes as he said, "You two can go on break now." Braden realized that Jay had finally given up on putting on a brave face. Maybe he would start to accept that Erica wasn't coming back. _I doubt it_

Sienna and Braden walked out into the gorgeous sunlight and breathed in the fresh, salty air. "Where do you want to eat?" questioned Sienna while gazing around her.

"Let's go to Johnny's restaurant," Braden said not really caring where they ate. As long as it wasn't Chinese, he was okay with it.

Braden also kind of had the inkling to talk to Johnny about Jay, and ask him what they could do. Johnny usual had some good solid advice, but as Braden looked around the restaurant, he couldn't see Johnny anywhere. He shrugged and assumed that it could wait until later.

"How many?" asked the hostess

"2, non smoking," answered Sienna while let out a slight gasp and her gaze was fixated across the room. Braden followed to where she was looking and there was Boston with his arm around some big-boobed blonde. Not just any blonde though, her hair was white. He was caressing the girls' thigh with that sly grin on his face and he started kissing her neck.

Braden glanced quickly at Sienna, "Maybe we should go somewhere else?"

"Nonsense!" she said with her lopsided grin. He felt lucky that he wasn't Boston in that moment. He was sure that Sienna intended to send him to hell in a hand basket.

The hostess sat them down in a table where they had an extremely clear view of exactly what Boston was doing to that poor bimbo. Right as they were sitting down, he started nibbling the girl's ear and running his hands through her hair.

Braden couldn't feel any more uncomfortable as Sienna announced that she had to go to the bathroom, which on her way she just happened to walk right by Boston's table.

His face when he saw her passing was priceless, "Sienna?"

She smiled warmly at him while batting her eyelashes, "Hey Boston!" She said this as if they were the best of friends and she couldn't be happier to run into him nuzzling some other girl.

"Er….Hi?" said Boston uncomfortably.

The blonde looked at Sienna with a pout on her face. "Whose this?" she whined while eyeing her, "Is this the girl you lost your virginity to?"

Boston looked at Sienna and he stuttered, "Well, um, Cora, she…." He trailed off. Obviously he had been feeding her some kind of line like he had only been with one other girl and wanted to know how it would feel to have a real woman under him and blah blah. Anybody who fell for that crap was a fool and deserved to be tricked.

"Yeah, I'm Sienna!" she brightly shook Cora's hand and added briskly, "I wish you two the best of luck. But I feel I must warn you, sometimes, dear Boston has trouble getting his little 'monster' awake. So all you have to do is show him pictures of zoo animals and that turns him right on."

"Sienna!"

"especially zebras, I don't know why they get him going so much, but once he sees a picture, he is practically a volcano!" Sienna was fighting back laughter now as she saw both Boston and Cora's revolted faces. She hoped she would have that effect on them. "And, I've got to tell you, it's the cutest thing…after we do it, he cries like a little baby in my arms. It is simply adorable."

"That's enough!" demanded Boston while slamming his fists on the table. Sienna saw her opportunity and went for it.

"Careful you'll knock over your drink, you silly goose!" she chided as she motioned to steady his hands, but he flinched and in all the confusion, she purposely knocked the drink in his lap. "Oh my goodness!" Sienna put her hands innocently to her face in shock and fake sympathy.

Braden could have sworn that he heard Boston growl before Sienna spoke again, "You know, with that water on your pants like that, it reminds me of that one time in bed where you had lost your hard-on because there were no zebra pictures around and in your effort to get excited, you pissed yourself. Isn't that just adorable, Cora?"

Sienna was the best fucking actress that Braden had ever seen. She honestly looked like she was being genuine. He felt like he should be applauding because she was the master of manipulation.

Cora looked at Boston with a sickened expression and said meekly, "I think maybe we should try this another time."

As she got up and grabbed her purse, Boston desperately grabbed her hand, "She's lying, please don't go."

She cringed at his touch and replied coldly, "Call me later to reschedule." By her tone, everyone knew that she had no intention of ever returning his calls again. Cora withdrew her hand from Boston's and quickly bustled out of the restaurant.

The quiet was deafening as none of the other people at the restaurant made a move. They had all watched the scene unfold and weren't sure whether or not it was over. Sienna was still standing in front of Boston's table and she giggled, "Well, _that_ was embarrassing!"

Boston spun around to face her and he seethed, "Go shove it, Sienna!"

She gave him a killer smile and a gaze that told him she was laughing at how pathetic he really was. Then she replied plainly, "And you can go find another zebra."

Sienna tossed her hair and strode confidently back to the table oblivious to the fact that the entire restaurant was watching her. She sat down and picked up the menu, "I heard their fettuccini Alfredo here is amazing!"

He had never admired her so much than he had in that moment.


	7. Sweet Relief

_I am having trouble reading the screen, I think my eyes are tired, so i didn't really proof read this as much as i usually do._

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or any of it's (i wish) characters..**

When Sienna and Braden had finally left the restaurant he had practically shouted how awesome she was! He seemed to think it was just about the funniest thing he had ever seen and while she joked with him for the rest of their workday together, she had a very different take on the situation. Sure, she had gotten her revenge on Boston, but that didn't stop her from having those images of him nibbling Cora's ear in her head. The thing was, she think she had loved Boston, and while she would rather die than admit that, it hurt like hell to see that he was already trying to shag other girls. She hadn't even considered dating anyone else yet.

The three hours that she had to work after that seemed excruciatingly long. All she wanted was to get home. She wanted to find her peace, and sweet relief from everything that was going on around her. She just needed one fucking thing to go right. She needed her cocaine.

When her shift with Braden ended she waved goodbye to him and Vegas, who had come to take him back to 'her place'. Sienna snorted. Vegas talked as if she in fact owned the house and that she had no parents. Sure, her parents were never around, but it seemed foolish whenever she said it was hers.

Her thoughts stopped thinking about Vegas quickly as her house was appearing in sight. Sienna started sprinting towards her front door, all she had to do was go to her room, and get her stash out. And as she bounded up the stairs at an alarming pace she silently preyed, _oh please dear god, let my stepfather be out for the nightshift!_

……………………………..

"Mmmmm," Vegas moaned in his ear as they rolled around in the Jacuzzi together for the third time that night. He loved this. He loved how everyday felt like he didn't know what would happen. Braden never knew who he would meet next, or if he'd be going home at night. It felt nice not knowing.

As Vegas started to withdraw from his clutches, sweating and her eyes drooping, he remembered what he needed to ask her. He felt awkward, but he remembered his Aunts shrill words to him and he sighed, "Vegas?"

"Yeah," she gave a throaty whisper in his ear that tickled and made his leg tingle. She then went on to slowly slide her tongue in his ear, and he quickly forgot what he was asking, as they fucked in the hot tub for a fourth time.

Once they were done, they were completely exhausted, and Braden finally remembered what he had to ask her, "Okay, I know this seems dumb, but my Aunt wants to have you over for dinner. It's not like this formal thing or whatever, but she really wants to meet the girl I've been 'spending all my time with'." He looked at her nervously. He was expecting her to laugh in his face.

"Aww, that's really cute! I would love to." Vegas said, and she wasn't sarcastic.

"Oh thank god!" sighed Braden with relief. He had been very nervous, but he was glad she understood.

"Well, you do understand that now you have to pick out what I should wear!" she commented thoughtfully.

"What? Why is that?" asked Braden a hint of panic in his voice. He was not a fan of any form of shopping or picking out clothes. If everyone did things his way, they would just wear the first thing they saw in their closet.

"Well you said it wasn't formal, but now I don't know how dressed up I have to be!" She whined. He knew there was no way he was getting out of this one. He was going to be spending the rest of tonight helping her find something to wear. _Oh well_, he thought, _at least she said yes_

………………………..

Sienna laid back on her bed smiling at the effect the drug was giving her. It was the best feeling in the world, she could cry she felt so happy. She felt beautiful, smart, and loved. She happily rose from her bed and skipped over to her mirror. She smiled sweetly at the reflection, loving how she looked at that moment, until she noticed a little something. There was a black dot on her face and she started laughing. She must have smudged her make up, silly her! Sienna started to wipe her cheek where the black mark was, but it wouldn't go away. She began to scrub it with her brush when that darn spot got even more stubborn. Slowly though, it was started to hurt a little bit and she was making even more of a mess because red was dripping all over her carpet. _Hmm…..how'd that get there_? She started clawing at the black spot and getting angry that it was ruining everything. That stupid black dot was ruining her face. She couldn't be pretty with a black dot cursing her all the time. She had to get it off. Sienna scratched harder. When it wouldn't come off she got frustrated. "Fine", she said angrily at the mirror, "I'll just be ugly forever!" Maybe she could hide it with makeup later, or it would come off in the shower. Yes, she would take a shower to wash away everything dirty.

Then, she suddenly smiled and touched the mirror; stroked it is more what she did. That stupid black dot was still there, but wait…..that black dot had never actually been on her face, but it had been a smudge on the mirror the whole time. She only thought that it was on her face. She laughed, and spun herself around. She could be just plain stupid at times but it was better to be stupid. _Ignorance is bliss_, she told herself. She closed her eyes happily as the euphoria started to leave her. It was being replaced by sharp pains in her cheek and a sad feeling in her heart.

She was feeling like she wanted to cry. Why did the happiness have to go away? That's all she really wanted, that happy feeling, forever. She wanted it back. Sienna stumbled her way to the wall where it was hidden and she could already feel the tears prick in her eyes. She wanted to cry because she had found such contentment and happiness only to lose it. She'd never lose it again, she agreed.

Before Sienna could reach into the hole in the wall where she kept her drugs, she heard loud footsteps on the stairs. Oh no, it was Reece, her step-dad. She withdrew her hands from the hole. She then stood up straight and stiffened as she heard him come closer to her door. He was going to come in and this made her nervous. She was high, oh god, and he was a fucking policeman!

The doorknob turned at an agonizingly slow rate before the door was pushed open by a big giant bear of a man. "Hello Sienna."

"Hi Reece," she couldn't help sounding weak and scared as she said it. Oh no, he was going to bust her. He knew.

"What have you been up to today?" He asked this while smiling and giving her an encouraging nod to answer.

"I worked and ate, at a restaurant." She thought that that sounded pretty normal. Being casual was easier than she thought.

"Well isn't that something. Eating at a restaurant how very…..nice." He was trying to make eye contact, but Sienna's eyes darted so fast around the room she barely had time to take in the change that happened in his eyes. A moment ago he had kindness and laughter shine in his eyes and now he looked cold.

She gasped. He knew! Oh dear. She twisted her hands nervously awaiting what he might say as he slowly spoke, "Why are your eyes bloodshot?"

"I rub them" Sienna knew this was a lame thing to say but the drugs were still in her.

"Oh I see." He walked out of the doorway and made his way completely into her room. He sat on her bed and sighed, "So your not high then?"

"Of course not." She knew that he knew she was lying, but she just couldn't bring herself to admit the truth to him.

He sighed and patted the spot next to him lightly, "Come on and sit down here Sienna. I think I need to talk to about what will happen to you once I take you into the station."

"What! Your taking me in, please, don't!" She didn't want to go, it could ruin her future.

His eyes glinted, as he looked at her and he said, "Fine then." Reece got up and to Sienna's relief he was heading out of her room, but instead of walking out of the doorway, he shut and locked it, while turning back to her menacingly.

"Oh no, not this. Please Reece, I don't want to…" she was whimpering as he put his hand on her cheek.

"I don't care" Sienna was frightened at the lust she saw in his eyes.

She bit her lip as he tried to unbutton her shirt but she slapped his hands away. This made him mad and so he grabbed her roughly and pushed her to the ground. She yelped in pain when he stepped on her ribs while saying, "You're going to be nice and quiet now, or else I will do a whole tab dance on your rib cage, got it?" The fierceness in his voice alarmed her and she didn't doubt for a second that he would do it if he had to. She nodded in agreement.

She felt the uncontrollable tears slide down her cheeks as he lowered himself on top of her. She tried to push him off, with all her might she tried, but he was so strong. He quickly ripped her pants off and she didn't know how he could manage to do that so fast. Sienna tried to grasp her underwear so that she could keep it on. If he couldn't pull them down, he couldn't rape her, but he gave her that evil smile as he completely ripped the panties in half, leaving nothing to stand in his way of having her. She gasped in horror and tried to flail around out of his grip, but he pinned her hands down. Aggressively he thrust himself inside Sienna, with tears of pain running down her face.

You'd think after a while she would stop fighting him when he tried to do this, but she couldn't let herself give up hope and surrender to him. She had to fight, if she was ever going to leave this wretched place.


	8. Evaluating It All

_this is kind of a nothing chapter, just more of the characters 'thinking' about stuff. the next chapter will be more exciting, but i probably wont update for about two weeks because i have to go somewhere so...i guess your gonna have 2 wait till then_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or any of its characters**

Sienna was good at hiding bruises by now, and her stepfather was good at hitting her where it would leave no bruise, or it where it wouldn't be detected. She sometimes felt like she wanted someone to accidentally see the bruises and scratches that seemed to cover her body. Sometimes, she wanted someone to care enough to ask her what's wrong. She only felt this way when she was alone in her room though, after another of Reece's little visits. Sienna would cry for about fifteen minutes and then wipe her last tear away and go look at the damage. She had gotten not only good at hiding her physical pain, but emotionally, she remained untouchable.

She no longer allowed herself to weep over what Reece does to her for longer than those 15 minutes, and she never, ever cried in front of other people anymore. Sienna didn't want anyone to see her while she was weak, and to her, being weak meant crying. And weaknesses led to people taking advantage of you, which was happening enough in Sienna's life without someone else coming along to use her. That is why she chose not to screw around; it just wasn't worth it. The last thing she wanted was to be reminded of Reece, and that's exactly what sex would do, so she chose not to have it.

If only Boston had known that that was the reason she couldn't be with him. It wasn't because she didn't want to; it was just that she only saw sex as something scary. When other people did it, Sienna didn't find it frightening. Like when Vegas fucked Braden, she didn't think that was scary at all, it was only when she thought about herself being with a man in that way that she found it repulsive.

She would eventually get over her fears of having sex once she found someone worth getting over those fears for, but for now she didn't even worry about it. All she thought about was not letting her stepfather ruin her life. Sienna wanted to prove that a bastard like that hadn't fazed her, and that means that Reece wouldn't win. Every time he savagely raped her in her room, he was expecting her to give up and stop having hope. She would never give him that satisfaction.

Sienna was driven to be great in spite of what she has been through. She will be happy goddamn it, no matter how bad it gets. She will lead an exciting and normal life, while ignoring the darkness. She would be strong and never let the tiniest inkling that something is wrong get the best of her.

How long though, could she keep a charade like this up? It was only so long until someone would see it, until someone would care enough to rescue her.

……………………………..

"Can you pass the potatoes please, Jay?" asked Braden loudly for the fourth time. Jay was staring at his fork absentmindedly and either was to entranced to hear Braden, or he was just ignoring him.

"Here you go, Braden," instead Susannah gave him the potatoes as she gave a sideways glance at Jay. She nudged him, but all that did was make him stop looking at his fork, and instead look at his spoon. _Oh boy, now this was improvement! _Braden was starting to get really worried about Jay only he couldn't voice this because Jay had long since stopped listening to anyone. He was so in love with Erica, and Braden wondered if his friend would ever be the same again.

"I'll take some more stuffing please," came a sweet voice from right next to Braden. He smiled at her as he watched her pile on the food. Thank god he finally got a girlfriend that ate! His other girls might have eaten, but they would always do the whole "Omigod! I shouldn't be eating this, I am fat enough already" speech. It got old and for once it was nice not to have to reassure her that she was sexy. Vegas knew she was and didn't need him to tell her, even though he did all the time.

"So Vegas, that's an interesting name. Is there a reason your parents named you that?" asked Aunt Ava in efforts to start a good conversation.

Vegas smiled wickedly for a moment before putting on a more innocent face and replying, "Well, my dad is a businessman through and through, so he named all of his kids after the cities his companies started off in. First he started off in Milan, which is my sisters' name, and then Boston, which is my brothers name, and then Vegas, and so on."

"Wow, talk about taking your work home with you!" laughed Ava.

"If you had anymore brothers and sisters what would there names be?" asked Susannah who seemed to like this conversation.

"Um, my father just got his secretary pregnant actually, and I think he was wanting to name a girl Miami and a boy Kent. He just got a company in England so I guess he wants to show that off." Vegas then spooned some vegetables in her mouth, and she didn't notice the uncomfortable silence that followed her remark about her father. Why did people get so awkward about it? So her father was a horndog, big deal. Her mother wasn't much better, she was a little bit on the tipsy side. Every family had their problems, and for most families, their problems considered money, and since her household had lots of it, they had lots of other problems.

Braden didn't take this silence as well as Vegas had. He knew everyone at the table was trying to think of what to say. When no one said anything he decided to come to her rescue, "What about your mom's companies?" he asked, "Doesn't she want to name any of her kids after the cities she's set up companies in?"

"She is more of the sort to just go with the flow really. She doesn't really care what were named as long as she can pronounce it, she is just peachy." Vegas said this in a laughing manner and even though everyone else smiled at her, they couldn't help but feel uneasy again.

Nikki managed to cut through the silence by questioning, "So do your parents have to go to these awesome cities all the time for work?"

"Yeah," answered Vegas earnestly, "If the trip is short enough I'll go with my dad, but usually he's gone over a month at a time."

"But what about your mom?" asked Nikki. She couldn't help herself.

"She lives in Paris, so I only go on an annual back to school trip to visit her and shop there. Other than that, I only see her at Christmas" Vegas was finishing up her stuffing slowly and Braden wanted her so bad to finish already, and then they could be excused. She was taking her sweet time though.

"Those vacations must be nice," Jay cut in, with a vacant look in his eyes.

"Yeah, but after like a couple weeks, I am ready to go home. I can only hang around my mother so long. She likes to go to dinner parties too much, while I like to stay in sometimes." Braden thought that that was a little weird. Vegas loved to go out all the time, maybe not to fancy places, but if you were required to wait twenty minutes for a seat, it was a night out.

"I see." Replied Jay darkly, "how are the bars in Paris, any good?'

"I am not old enough to get in the bars so I wouldn't know." Vegas had been to plenty of bars, but didn't want that kind of impression on Braden's Aunt. She wanted all of Braden's family to like her because she really cared about Braden. His family was important to him, so she wanted to be important to them.

Vegas was unaware of everyone's wary glances about the table. They were concerned over all this talk of Europe, it was the very place that Erica was supposed to be and Braden hadn't really told her much about it. They had been too busy making out everywhere to even have time to talk. He told Sienna though, which he thought was weird. Suddenly he felt kind of guilty about telling Sienna something that he hadn't even bothered to tell his girlfriend.

"I heard the guys are real different there. Very forward, is that true?" Jay's eyes shone determinedly as he was intent on hearing what Vegas said.

"It's _very_ true!" Vegas answered while nodding her head, "Last time I was there one guy I hadn't seen before in my life bought me a bouquet of flowers and another one took me on a ride with his mo-ped."

This time, she noticed how everyone around the table winced. Jay drew a quick breath and said with a smile, "Dinner was lovely Ava, but I think I should really get going." He put his napkin nicely on the table and rose from his chair.

"But where are you going?" asked Nikki confused.

"I'm just going out with some friends. I used to have a lot of friends you know." He seemed different somehow in the way he said this. Jay had more desperation in his eyes.

"What about—" Ava began before being cut off as Jay slid the door closed behind him. She sighed and sat down helplessly.

Vegas couldn't help but feel awkward and guilty after this, even though she did her best to pretend that everything was fine, she still felt the stiff silence. She didn't want to have to think that she blew this. That Braden's family now thought she was an idiot. Vegas tried hard to keep these agonizing thoughts out of her mind.

…………………………

"She couldn't have done that bad Braden," commented Sienna while pinning up some new surfing posters along the walls of the shop. He had just finished telling her how dinner had been a complete disaster.

"It wasn't even the fact of what she said," stated Braden a little aggravated, "It's how Jay had reacted to her talking about Paris and how the guys were so forward."

"She said that when she knew what Jay was going through?" asked Sienna shocked that Vegas would be that insensitive.

Braden looked a little uncomfortable. He bit his lip and shoved his hands into his pockets as he muttered, "I guess I had forgotten to tell her…"

"Jesus, Braden! Why couldn't you have forgotten to tell me? I had to listen to you for hours bitching and moaning about Jay."

"I was not bitching!"

"You were bitching worse than a hooker whose got rent to pay!" she laughed at her own joke as she stepped back and admired her ability to levelly stick up posters on the wall; Braden couldn't help but chuckle as she titled her head to the side like a little puppy dog.

"I guess me and Vegas aren't really one of those talking couples…" he sighed. They truly didn't even talk at all. Every time they started to tell each other something, they were pawing at the other's clothes before anybody had even finished a sentence.

"You two are more of the physical type I take it," stated Sienna while taping another poster to the wall. She had her back to him, but he heard something in her voice that he had never heard before. His heart leapt as maybe he thought she might be…jealous? Braden continued staring at her lean back and shook his head, she didn't like him that way and he needed to accept that. He had to stop getting more excited over thinking about Sienna being jealous than he got excited about having sex with Vegas.

Never would he aloud state that he was getting kind of bored with all the sex him and Vegas were having. While it felt great and Vegas was extremely good at it, there was just something not right. Maybe it was the fact that when they screwed each other, it was kind of the same thing over and over again. He never allowed himself to think of these things before, but now with these feelings for Sienna rising up, he was questioning some things. _Wait, wait_, he said to himself, _I don't have feelings for Sienna. I care about Vegas. I love the girl for god sakes!_ Braden was shocked by his own thoughts sometimes, but this last one came as even more of a jawdropper. He started to evaluate though, whether or not he really felt that way about her. After a few minutes, he knew.

Finally he answered Sienna's previous question, "Yeah, but I think I love her."


	9. Please Believe My Lies

_I realized a total flaw in my plot as i was writing this chapter, but i tried to fix it as best as i could. I won't tell you my mistake either because maybe you won't notice it. well read and reaview please!_

**Disclaimer: No, sadly, I do not own Jesse McCartney or his sexy body l0l. Summerland ain't mine either...**

"You what?" asked Sienna who couldn't help the skeptical tone that was in her voice. Braden and Vegas had been having a lot of fun together over the past month, but love? They had only been together for a little while, how could he think he loved her when he barely even knew her yet.

"Well, I can't explain it, but really think I love her" Braden was staring intently at Sienna, as if he needed her to say that it was okay to be love with Vegas.

She shook her head as she spun around, "You don't even know her."

Braden couldn't understand this, "We've been hanging out constantly for over a month now. I know a lot about her!" He was starting to sound really defensive and he didn't know why he felt the need to explain himself.

Sienna rolled her eyes, "You can't figure out everything about a person in just a month. Your still in that stage of the relationship where you think she's 'perfect. Give it time, and you'll see that she has imperfections. Love is when you learn to appreciate the flaws in a person, and you don't even know what they are yet!"

"Oh, like you know anything!" Braden did not like that she was telling him how he felt. Sienna didn't know anything about how he felt. "Your just jealous!" He winced as he spoke these words. He hadn't meant to actually say them.

"Don't be so full of yourself, I'm not jealous. Just because I'm saying something you don't like doesn't mean I want to have hot steamy sex with you. I'm being honest." Sienna shrugged at him and continued her work. Braden didn't like this response though.

"Okay fine then! I'm not in _love_ with her, but I'm on my way."

"Well isn't that just simply splendid." Sienna said in a darkly sarcastic tone.

He'd finally had enough, "What is your problem?"

She shifted her weight uncomfortably, and shot back, "I wasn't aware I had one." Sienna had her hands on her hips now and was contorting her beautiful face in anger. Braden stared at her, and didn't really know if he should continue to press her buttons, even though she had no problem doing so to him. She was so frustrating! As Braden continued to look at her with fury, he notice a faint bruise on the side of her face that she had clearly tried to hide with make up.

"Where did you get that bruise from?" he asked with concern. He didn't mean to catch her off guard but he felt uneasy about it.

Her pale face grew red as she lifted her hand to cover the place where the bruise had formed. She bit her lip and lied, "I had another run in with Boston's latest bimbo." She hoped beyond hope that he would believe her. She needed him to.

"What, and she hit you?" Braden's eyes were wide with shock as he stepped closer to her to get a better look at the bruise.

"I guess I was being a little too nasty…sometimes I get carried away with myself when I tell people off." She said meekly, and smiled up at Braden's face

There was no anger there, only concern as he reached out gentlytotouch her dark bruise and his fingers tickled Sienna's cheek. She didn't remove them though; she liked the feeling of Braden's touch. His fingers were tracing the outline of the injury as he rested his palm tenderly near her jaw. She gave a pleasurable sigh. She closed her eyes and nudgedher face deeper into his strongpalm.Her hot breath was warming his skin and she slowly raised her eyelids to look deeply into Braden's face. She never wanted him to stop touching her. Way too soon though, he dropped his hand from her cheek and stepped backwards. He had just realized what he had been doing, and knew that he shouldn't go there. He was a little embarrassed that he had just spent a full minute trying to caress Sienna, but he had honestly not thought of it that way until he looked into her eyes and realized that he wanted her.

It was his turn to grow red as he stuttered, "Yeah well, uh…."

Sienna wasn't really paying attention to him though; she was deep in thought. She had just thoroughly enjoyed that tender moment between the two of them and it made her uneasy. She didn't want to be having feelings for Braden, because that would be very unwise. He was her best friend's boyfriend and besides that, she didn't want a guy like Braden. She didn't want a guy period at the moment. Sienna didn't want to have to go through all the lying and secrecy that she did when she was with someone. It was draining to have to come up with lies for all the injuries, or why her eyes were blood shot. Plus, she wasn't prepared to be hurt again.

Braden was watching her as she was standing there biting her lip and staring past him. He felt awkward and he wanted her to say something. The silence was deafening. "And did you hit the girl back?" It was the only thing he couldthink ofto say.

She snapped into attention and muttered, "What?"

"The girl who hit you….Did you hit her back?"

"Oh," she said. Sienna raised her eyes to look at him and shook her head, "No, she would have kicked my ass. She was practically a foot taller than me!"

Braden smiled, "Well, considering that a toddler could be taller than you, that's not very difficult." He was eager to create the joking atmosphere that had just recently evaporated.

She beamed at him and replied sarcastically, "Ouch, that hurt! But, I wouldn't be talking if I were you."

"Why is that?"

"Because even the average _Asian_ man is taller than you." Sienna pursed her lips in satisfaction and smiled as she went to go fold some of the surfing clothes that were next to her. Braden was relieved that they both were going to pretend that they hadn't just experienced the most awkward moment ever.

"Hey, I've got to go to the bathroom real quick, and there's a customer coming in." Sienna nodded towards the door and Braden motioned for her to go as he walked towards the register. She went in the back room, which led to the bathroom. She silently shut and locked the door and then she put the toilet seat down. Sienna rummaged through her purse desperately trying to find the coke she had put in there earlier.

"Thank god," she sighed when she finally found it. She expertly made a few lines and with excitement, she snorted them. Sienna didn't know why she felt she needed to feel better so badly, but she did. After that confusing moment back there, she wanted to forget and feel good again. When she was high, there was no confusion or any feelings of confliction, there was just happiness; there was only that wonderful thing called euphoria. Sienna took a long steady breath and put a lazy smile on her face, now this is what life is supposed to feel like.

She made her way out of the back room just as the customer slipped out of sight and Sienna told herself that this was because the coke was making her lucky. She laughed and didn't know why that had just made sense, but she insisted in her mind that it did. She twirled before walking up to the shops window and looking at the people passing by. Sienna started waving to them, and saying hi. "What are you doing?" asked Braden while looking at her as if she was insane.

"I'm making friends" she replied happily while continuing to wave at a particularly frightened looking little boy.

He raised his eyebrows and said disbelievingly, "Is that so?"

Sienna turned to him with a pout on her face. He could have sworn that she looked exactly like a bratty little two year old as she stomped her foot and replied, "I was, but now you're scaring them away! It's all your fault."

Braden didn't know what she was playing at but he laughed anyways. She may be acting psycho, but she was still being damn funny. "No, I think it's you who is scaring them. I've never seen someone with a creepier smile."

"I do not have a creepy smile!Those people can see the bruise and the black dot, that's why they are scared. No one likes someone who's injured, that means there weak."

Braden was confused, "Black dot?"

"I tried to make it go away but it wouldn't come off. I tried gettingthe dotwith my brush, but it wouldn't budge and then when I scratched it, it was still there. Even when I saw all the red dripping everywhere, it was still there," Sienna was getting frightened again that the black dot would be on her face forever. She reaced up to touch the place she thought it was in. Then, she suddenly remembered that it had been on the mirror the whole time and she smiled with relief, "but really, the dot wasn't ever on me. It was just playing with me….that mean little dot!" She giggled as she skipped over towards the door and started touching the people that were walking by while saying things like, "oh, your hair is so soft!" and "oh my god, that is so SHINY!"

Braden was starting to worry about her. She wasn't acting normal, he didn't know what she was on, but Sienna had to be on something to be behaving this way. And he couldn't believe that the scratches that he had seen earlier on her face, were from herself. She had said to him that she got the scratches while at dance. Sienna had told him this elaborate story of how she had hit the corner of the CD rack while doing some dance move. She had lied, and been extremely good at it. If she had lied about the scratches, she could have definitely lied about the bruise that she had right now. This last thought really disturbed him.

"What's wrong with you Sienna?" he didn't know how to handle this. She couldn't be drunk because she was walking fine, and it takes more than just two minutes to get this drunk. She was on something, he didn't know what, but there was no doubting that she was drugged up.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with me right now, everything is perfect. Life is so wonderful…don't you think it's great?" She had a dazed look to her eyes, and Braden couldn't handle seeing her this way. He hadn't told her so, but ever since he found out that she didn't drink because she cared so much about her studies, he had had a certain respect for her. She was definitely stronger than he was. But that respect was gone now, but instead it was replaced by anger that she would do this to herself.

"Tell me what you took!" he grasped both her arms as she clamored towards him.

"Hey, these arms are mine. Get your own!" she whined loudly. She squirmed to try to get away from his grip, but he only tightened his hold on her. She was shooting it up while at work! What kind of person did that?

"What drug did you take," he demanded sternly. She turned her face away from him and he let go of one of her arms to firmly turn her face back to him. He looked into her eyes and repeated, "What drugs did you take?"

She looked worried by his question and her eyes started to dance nervously around the room. Her brow was sweating and he could see tears welling up in her eyes. Sienna let out a whimper and quietly asked, "Could you let go of my arms, they hurt. Then, I'll tell you."

He did so and looked down into her yellow and watery eyes. What Braden couldn't see was that Sienna was internally freaking out. When Braden had grabbed her arms like that she was immediately reminded of how Reece had done that on many occasions while trying to rape her. She had thought for a horrible, brief momentthat maybe Braden was going to attempt to do that. This last thought made her shudder. She wouldn't be able to handle it if he ever tried to do that to her.

Sienna was scared to death and could barely think straight as she thought of what to say to Braden's question. She could never tell him the truth. "I….didn't…" she was on the verge of tears and she couldn't explain why. She could feel her heart racing and it was hard to breath. She was panting as she continued, "I thought they were mine. I had cramps, so I put the bottle of…of…painkillers in my bag. They weren't whatIthought….that's not what they are, no no. They are my mommy's. She likes pills a lot…."

He didn't quite comprehend. "You took them by mistake?"

"My mom likes to take drugs, ecstacy is her drug of choice I think. She switches the bottles sometimes. I thought that I was taking something for my cramps. You have to believe me!" Sienna was desperately pawing at him now. He could never know the truth, he had to believe her lies. To her relief, Braden nodded in understanding.

He was just as relieved as her to hear this. So her mom was a pillpopper and she had accidentally taken some crazy drug. This made him feela lot betteras he looked down at Sienna. She wasn't some drugged up rich girl, thank god, she was different. She was better than that and Braden loved that about her. He smiled at her as he concluded to himself that he believed her, "I'm sorry I was so rough with you earlier."

"It scared me." She was looking at him while rubbing her arms in the place he had held them. Some of Sienna's tears had managed to escape and they trickled down her cheek. She frantically wiped them away and told herself to stop being to pathetic.

"I didn't hurt you did I?" he asked while silently yelling at himself for being so thoughtless and angry. "I was justmad because I thought you were taking drugs intentionally and I just had thought you were better than that."

Sienna's stomach plummeted. Damn him for making her feel like shit. She hated that she was a drug addict, but as much as she wanted to stop, she knew that she wasn't strong enough to get through life without cocaine. As much as she didn't want to disappoint Braden, she just didn't have it in her.

"Well, I guess you should probably sit down until it wears off. Then, you should go home and yell at that mother of yours!"

"No, there is still three hours left to our shift. I don't want to go home." Sienna was very determined about not going home. Even though her house would be empty until 5, when her dad got home, she still didn't like being there. It was the place where day after day, a part of her was destroyed, and she hated every agonizing minute she spent within those walls.

Braden looked at her and saw that she wouldn't let him send her home no matter what, so he caved in. "Alright, but your going to be sitting down the entire time. Okay?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I will work my but off every minute for three more hours. To give Jay his monies worth." Braden sighed with defeat. She was a fiery little devil, with enough determination to amaze even the greatest of people.

…………………..

As Braden lay awake that night thinking about Sienna, he managed to ignore what his heart was telling him. He wanted his feelings to lay buried inside him, never to reach the surface again. He only cared about her as a friend, was his favorite saying. Sienna was a great _friend_. He wouldn't let himself see it any other way, especially since it wouldn't get him anywhere. She didn't feel that way about him and even if she did, Sienna still wouldn't be with him because he was dating her best friend. As Vegas came to mind he sighed. She cared about him so much that it was almost overwhelming. Any guy was lucky to have a girl like her, one who was laid back, gorgeous, and knew how to have some fun.

After work, Braden had taken Vegas to Johnny's restaurant for some food and she had spent the entire time stressing out about how poorly things had went when she had had dinner with his family. It became clear to him that she so badly wanted to please him and this revelation made him realize how good he had it with her. She was perfect.

Braden's thoughts were interrupted suddenly when he heard a scuffling outside. He got up curiously from his bed and walked over to his sliding glass door. He couldn't really see very well, so he opened it and walked out into the night air. He looked around himself searching for the source of the noise, and soon he found it.

"Jay?" asked Braden uncertainly. Jay had his arms around some brunette's waist and he was burying his face lustfully in her hair. Braden was stricken when he realized that this girl was not Erica. "What in the hell are you doing?"

Jay pulled away from the woman who was leaning against the wall and he drunkenly took a step backwards to steady himself. He looked like hell; his face had smudged lipstick all over and his hair was sticking up at odd angles. He turned to look at Braden and slurred to him, "I think I am showing this young lady how to have a little fun."

"And he's succeeding too" cut in the strange woman.

Braden was at a loss for words. What happened to the Jay who was pining after Erica? The one who sat in front of the TV for weeks while spoon-feeding himself barrels of ice cream? "But what about…"

"Don't even say it, Braden. Just go back to bed, while I show Neva over hear the inside of my bedroom." Jay wiggled his eyebrows at him suggestively, probably thinking that he was being subtle, as he turned towards the girl and put is arm sloppily around her. Braden could think of nothing to say to this as he watched Jay, nibbling the girl's ear and grabbing her ass. It was the saddest thing Braden had ever seen.


	10. Unjustified Content

_Okay,I wanted to add one last chapter before I leave in 6 hours, but in my rush to finish this chapter, I don't really thinkI managed to domy 'best work'. Oh well, next chapter will be WAAAAAAAAY more exciting, trust me ;-)_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or its characters**

After that night where Braden witnessed Jay's brand new appreciation for the female form, it all went down hill. Jay was out every single night getting absolutely plastered and coming home with a different girl in the wee hours of the morning. The entire family was noticing this newfound promiscuity and no one dared to approach him on the matter. That is, except Ava. She had tried, and to make a long story short, failed miserably, and ended up embarrassing herself while making Jay more determined to have 'fun'. That is what he called his nights of bar hopping and anonymous sex; it was all just a way to have 'fun'.

Braden couldn't help noticing though that a lot of the time, the girls that Jay was bringing home had a striking resemblance to Erica, the very girl that Jay was trying to forget. He could slightly understand why Jay was behaving this way though, and that is how he knew thatthis behaviorcouldn't last much longer. Soon Jay would figure out that this was not the way to feel better, and then he would cease trying to get down the pants of every brunette in Playa Linda.

Meanwhile, to distract Braden from Jay's problems, Vegas and Sienna had been hanging around his house a lot lately. They would just watch television or bad lifetime movies or somethingweird like that,but it was still really enjoyable and even though Sienna complained about being the third wheel all the time, she was anything but. Braden liked it better when she was there because than at least Vegas would keep her hands to herself long enough to actually talk to him. He liked getting closer tohis girlfriendin an emotional aspect, instead of just getting closer in a physical way. He knew he sounded like a girl when he thought these things to himself, but so what, he couldn't help that he felt that way.

Braden also liked that Sienna was hanging around him more because he was still worried about her. Even though he believed what she said about her mom, and it being an accident, he was still suspicious. He found it odd that someone could 'accidentally' take ecstasy twice in the same week. _Though_, he reasoned to himself, _she had said that she had cramps._ So she was probably on her period and that's why it had happened twice in the same week.

It made sense and he had no reason not to believe her; so he just kept a silent watch on her for the next few weeks to make sure that he could trust her word. He also watched to check for any more mysterious injuries but he hadn't seen any in the three weeks since he had been inspecting. So he was breathing easier now, and starting to relax.

"I refuse to watch this crap!" exclaimed Braden as Vegas tried to convince him to watch a Lifetime movie about some kid obsessed with porn.

"Come on! You know you secretly want to see it." She smirked at him and took the remote out of his hands. She turned back to the channel the movie was on.

"No, I honestly don't." he pouted.

"Now, now, you two, can you stop arguing long enough to help me eat this _ginormous_ pizza?" came Sienna's voice as she slid into the room with a pizza box in her hand. The smell of the food was most appetizing.

"Oh my god, I love you!" shouted Vegas gleefully as she hopped up from the couch towards Sienna, "I am starving!"

Braden smiled to himself as he watched them both excitedly open the pizza box and proceed to carelessly take huge slices out and start to eat them. He loved how they never felt self conscious while eating in front of him; it kind of changed his view that all rich girls had eating disorders. "Me too" he added happily while striding over and grabbing a piece.

"Do I smell pizza?" Nikki walked into the living room with her nose sniffing the air and with Cameron close behind her.

"Yeah you want some?" asked Sienna while wiping some sauce off her face. She grinned as she added, "I even got the pizza guy to give me some pineapple on the side in case you wanted some."

Vegas looked up at Nikki and gushed, "You like pineapple on your pizza, gross!"

Then Vegas and Nikki presumed to argue for twenty minutes about whether or not it was a travesty to be putting fruit on a pizza. Bradenshook his head with a grin on his faceas he looked at them jokingly going at each other, and he felt at ease. He liked that they could be just hanging out at his house not doing anything, and still have a great time; Vegas fit into his family like a glove, despite what had happened at dinner the other week.

As he continued to lazily gaze around the room, he noticed Sienna talking to Cameron. She was laughing at something he said and she was playfully shoving him. Cameron looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, he probably felt damn lucky to be talking to someone as gorgeous as Sienna. Braden, for some strange reason, didn't like her talking to him. Or touching him, for that matter.

He was watching them talk and laugh together happily and she grazed his arm and rested her fingertips lightly on his shoulder. Braden felt the cold hands of jealousy take hold of him and he wanted to go over there to slap her hands away from Cameron. He somehow managed to hold himself back, however, and made himself tear his eyes away from them to look back at his supposedly beloved Vegas. This thing he had for Sienna needed to stop. She didn't like him in that way, but he had known that from the moment he met her. Despite this, Braden suddenly had a sinking feeling in his stomach. What if Sienna did, in some bizarre twist,have feelings for him, what would he do? Would he drop the whirlwind romance that he had with Vegas for something with Sienna? He was aghast at himself when he realized that he would, and he'd do it without batting an eyelash. Braden wanted her that much, and he felt so guilty that he was with Vegas, stringing her along, when the only reason he was with her was because he couldn't land her best friend! _He was a terrible person_, he concluded to himself. What the fuck was the matter with him?

He wouldn't say anything to Sienna about his feelings though, not tonight, at least. Braden would have to work out what this meant in the morning, for now he had to act normal. But it was hard when all that was on his mind were things that weren't supposed to be there. He needed to figure this out and quickly, because how long can he go with all these conflicting feelings burning inside him? How long until the desire became too much?

……………………..

In the next couple days at work, both Sienna and Jay noticed Braden's odd behavior and nervousness. He was constantly stuttering and bumping into things; they had come to think of him as somewhat of a klutz. Neither of them though could understand this overnight transformation from the cool collected Braden, to the jumpy and nervous one that had suddenly replaced the old him.

It was beginning to interfere with his duties at the shop and Jay, not being in the best state of mind, wasn't really inclined to deal with Braden's slacking off much longer. After a particularly slow and embarrassing night, Jay asked Braden to stay for an extra couple of minutes so they could talk. Sienna sauntered away without him, but looked curiously back at the two men before disappearing from site.

"So, are you going to tell me what's wrong, mate?" Jay wasn't going to waste any time with small talk. Braden was distracted, that was the only explanation for his peculiar behavior. He was going to find out what was making Braden this way and then he was going to fix it.

"It's nothing really. Just I can't….I…I don't know, nevermind." Braden really didn't want to say out loud all the things he was feeling and what was wrong with him to make him act this way. He was practically dropping everything that he managed to pick up he was so preoccupied with his thoughts.

Jay replied pointedly, "Obviously it's not nothing if you can't even walk five feet without bumping into something."

Braden sighed and reluctantly admitted, "I have been kind of unfocused with things lately."

"Yeah, there's a real shocker. What are these 'things' that occupy your mind so much?" Jay was awfully good at prying for information. Braden frowned as he realized this and tried to think whether or not he should tell Jay anything.

Finally he reasoned that maybe this talk could help both of them out, seeing as both their problems had similarities, "Well, you got to promise that you won't laugh, or tell a soul."

"You have an Aussi's honor!"

He was tentative to start, but did so as Jay nodded encouragingly towards him."I've been thinking about Sienna" Braden paused to look at Jay's reaction and was a little annoyed that Jay wasn't in the slightest bit surprised, "and how if she were to show the slightest bit of interest, I would leave Vegas in the drop of a hat which really disturbs me because Vegas is an awesome girl." He waited in momentary silence to see if Jay had anything to say, but the quietness continued. Braden pressed on, "I just hate that I keep going out with Vegas, when I'm still pining over Sienna. Vegas is like a second choice, which is such a horrible thing to say, but the sad thing is that it couldn't be more true!" Braden didn't know what else to say about the matter because that was basically it, everything that was bothering him, in a nutshell.

"Well, then it's not really fair to keep going out with Vegas than is it?" Jay's comment was obvious, and Braden knew it. The thing was he had been ignoring this fact since his feelings about Sienna had arisen.

"I care about Vegas, though. I don't want to lose her!"

"You can't care about her that much if you like Sienna more. Braden, you shouldn't stay with Vegas just because you know you can't have her friend. It's stupid, and it is obvisouly not making you very happy."

"I just feel guilty about feeling this wayfor Sienna, and my lack of feeling for Vegas, you know?"

"You should! Vegas doesn't deserve you playing games with her."

"I am not playing games wit—"

"Yes you are, and it's time to stop."

Braden had neverlet outa longer sigh in his life. This was it; he had to break up with Vegas. _Why though_, he asked himself. What purpose would it serve if he didn't even get Sienna in the end? Then he would just be alone again and even more worse off than before. Ugh…it was too confusing. Maybe he should hold off on doing something until he was absolutely sure it was the right thing. He didn't want to ruin anything because of rash decisions he made based on Jay's advice (which wasn't very credible considering what Jay was doing with his time nowadays).

Yes, he would hold off on all decisions…..certainly he would know when the time was right. Braden was confident that he wouldn't let things go too far. His confidence, unfortunately, was unjustified.


	11. Trying to Forget

_Okay I'm back now, and I hope you all like this chapter. I got kind of antsy whileI was away andI wanted to write so bad, but I couldn't. I just had so many ideas in the ole noggin l0l. Well, hope you like this chapter..._

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or its characters.**

Braden continued to ignore Jay's advice and he stayed with Vegas. He was having fun with her and he'd be damned if he was going to stop it just because he had a little crush on her friend. There was nothing that could be done, and eventually his feelings for Sienna would go away, but in the meantime he'd just focus all his time on Vegas.

So the weeks slid on by, and Braden tried to steer clear of Sienna as much as he could. If he didn't see her, then it was easier to forget about her. Once school started though, they would be near each other all the time, and Vegas would be miles away at some private academy.

They had already talked about that though, and Vegas would be flying home every other weekend and they could call and email each other all the time. The long distance relationship thing wouldn't be too hard and plus, they still had two weeks before school started, two more weeks of freedom and happiness.

What he was planning to do with that time, was, for tonight, party it up. Braden was heading over to some rich bastard's house with Vegas on his arm for another party to be remembered. He was starting to get use to all these extravagant things that surrounded Vegas (and Sienna). The mansions, yachts, Gucci purses, he had been experiencing that life all summer. At first he felt awkward and out of place at those parties but now, he was right at home and he was beginning to love every minute.

As the car pulled up to the giant gray, castle-like house, Vegas turned to Braden. "Okay now the guy whose house this is, is Gideon Burrows. And I haven't seen him for awhile and we used to be like best friends, so I might want to hang out with him for a little bit." She looked at him tentatively, "Is that okay?"

Braden didn't know what he was going to do if he wasn't with Vegas but he replied nonetheless, "That's fine. You can have all night to catch up if you need."

She beamed at him and she brushed away a piece of her auburn hair out of her eyes before saying, "Oh thanks so much" Vegas then threw her arms around him happily. Braden was surprised but delighted by this embrace. She withdrew eventually and said deviously, "Now, time for the party to start!"

They piled themselves out of the car and headed up the walkway towards the door. As they climbed up the cobblestone steps, Vegas added, "And anyways, you can just hang out with Sienna all night."

Braden's stomach lurched. He hadn't known that Sienna was going to be here tonight, and now he was probably going to end up spending the entire night with her. He didn't know if he could really go a whole night, with alcohol, without telling Sienna how he really feels. "Oh….yeah."

As Vegas happily knocked on the door, and walked casually inside the house, Sienna came up behind them. "Hey bitches"

They both acknowledged her strikingly beautiful appearance and greeted her happily. Braden looked around at the giant room he was in and was amazed at the huge crystal chandelier that was above him. He was so transfixed with looking at his surroundings that he didn't really notice that Vegas had walked over to talk to Gideon.

"Are you going to have a drink or what?" asked Sienna.

Braden looked around dumbly, "What?"

She rolled her eyes, "Vegas is over by Gideon, do you wanna go get a drink?"

"You don't drink though."

"That's why _you_ are getting the drink….ya know…for yourself." She gave him a crooked smirk and a mocking gaze.

He loved it when she looked at him like that. "Great idea." They both headed over to the bar and she ordered him three shots. She watched him down all three of them and all she could think about was how much she wished she could have some coke right then. But since she was with Braden it would be best not to. He was already suspicious.

"Well what do you want to do now?" questioned Braden, who was starting to loosen up a bit.

Sienna looked around at all the people dancing to the loud blaring music and the few people fucking in the corners of the room. She sighed, "What do you think you do at a party?"

"Drink, I guess."

"Dance, that's what you do, dumb ass." She snickered at him and added, "That blonde over there looks pretty cute. Go over and dance with her."

"I'm taken, remember?" Braden said defensively.

She looked at him and shook her head, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I don't think Vegas would like it if I was grinding on some other girl!"

"Grinding does not constitute as cheating. Vegas still dances with other guys at parties, so your allowed to dance with other people too." Sienna started tapping her foot impatiently at him.

"She dances with other guys?" Braden asked heatedly.

Sienna was exasperated. "Oh my god!" She turned her back to him and said, "Alright lets get this boy two more shots before getting him on the dance floor okay, Tony?" She addressed the bartender and raised her eyebrows meaningfully at him. He nodded understandingly and Braden was totally confused.

"What the hell was that?"

"Just drink, and then get your ass over by that blonde."

He gulped down the drinks and childishly complained, "I don't want to dance with her."

"Fine then!" She exclaimed while throwing her hands up in the air. "Come here." She grabbed his shirt roughly and dragged him over to the area where everyone was dancing. He let Sienna drag him without too much reluctance and he watched as she started to sway her hips. Sienna had her arms around his neck and was moving to the music as he still stood stock still, not knowing what to do. "This is the part where you start dancing."

"But…Vegas she—" He was feeling particularly woozy. The drinks were starting to catch up to him.

"She told me to dance with you, and make sure your not bored while she spends a little time with Gideon." Sienna rolled her eyes in utter annoyance, "Now put your hands on my waist and dance because I am starting to feel just plain silly dancing all by my self."

Slowly, Braden started to sway and move to the fast beat of the techno music. His hands were tightly on Sienna's waist and he was dying to make them go lower, but he wouldn't dare. Braden licked his lips as he stared down at Sienna's swinging body and looked into her eyes. The both of them danced like that together for who knows how long; they just stared into each other's eyes while moving closer towards each other. Braden could feel himself start to want her. He also started to want her to know how he feels. He wanted her to give him permission to feel the way he does. Braden had a feeling though he would regret it in the morning when all the liquor was out of his system, but right now, with the drinks pulsating threw him, he was feeling confident. "I love you" He whispered it softly in her ear, without even realizing it.

They both stopped dancing for a moment and dropped their hands from each other's bodies. Braden couldn't help but feel like the biggest idiot in the world for saying that to her and he was agonizing what she was going to say to him back, that is, when she finally did speak. He was still hopeful though, that somehow, she could feel the same way that maybe she wouldn't be angry with him for saying that to her; maybe Sienna would fall for him. Her reaction though, was not what he had wanted it to be. It was actually the worst thing she could have done to him in that moment.

She laughed at him.

"You don't love me, Braden." She shook her head like it was some kind of funny joke. She started dancing again, like what she had said settled everything. But Braden wasn't content with this answer.

"What do you mean by that? You can't tell me what I feel.."

"You don't even know me. How can you love someone you don't know?" She answered him, all laughter gone from her face.

"I know you, I've known you all summer, and I've liked you more and more each day." Braden was slurring his words now and he was saying more than he wanted to but he couldn't help but let it out. He couldn't stop himself from saying, "From the moment I met you I've wanted you."

"Is that so?" She replied while pursing her lips.

"Yeah," said Braden drunkenly, "You're perfect. You are funny, gorgeous, nice when you want to be, and you have got a killer ass." He smiled at his comment about her ass; it was funny to him in that moment.

She glared at him for a few moments in rage, but before she could say anything, her gaze changed. She stopped looking at Braden, but was instead looking over his shoulder at something. He was confused so he asked her, "What's wrong?"

"It's Wynnie," she looked pale as she stuttered these two words and she started to run her hands through her hair.

"Who?"

"Oh god, I need a drink." She spun around and raced towards the bar so fast that Braden barely had time to follow her.

"You don't drink though."

"I do when Wynnie is in town." She said this while gulping down her third shot. She continued to get a fourth, then and fifth shot before Braden had to step in.

"I think that's enough for now."

"Oh, bite me. You are a jackass you know that? Telling me you love me when you are going out with my best friend! What kind of person does that?" Sienna was stumbling towards him and her fingers were poking at his chest.

"It's just the way I feel and I thought you should know."

"Don't you think Vegas should know, hmmmm?" when Braden remained guiltily silent, she looked at him in disgust. "That's what I thought. You don't even have the courage to be honest. You know what? I'm done hanging out with you, I think it's time you should be by yourself."

With that she turned on her heel and left the room. She rushed towards the bathroom, eager to get a few lines of coke in, before she runs into Wynnie, and Braden, crushed by his failure with Sienna, rushed towards the bar, eager to get a few shots in, and hopeful that he could forget this night ever happened.

**Thanks to everyone that reviewed!**


	12. The Morning After

_I felt like I was rushing this chapter, but I want toget it in before school starts tomorrow so sorry if it sucks._

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or its characters**

Sienna groaned as she felt the sunlight shine threw the window and onto her sleeping figure. She had an almost unbearable hangover, and her head was pounding painfully; the sunlight didn't exactly help it either.

She licked her cracked lips as she tried to remember what had happened last night. Sienna knew she had seen Wynnie, but couldn't remember if they had had a confrontation or not. She knew that she had had some coke last night after Braden had said that he loved her, but Sienna couldn't remember how many lines she did. She rubbed her eyes as she asked herself again, what happened last night?

As she lazily opened her eyes, it took a moment to adjust to the light. Sienna looked around puzzled at the red walls and beautiful black antique furniture; this room wasn't hers. Where the fuck was she? Sienna felt a little nervous for a second, but then she shrugged and reasoned with herself that she must have passed out at Gideon's house and had been moved into the bedroom by Vegas.

Sienna removed the blankets from on top of her and stood up. She looked down at her body for a second and was shocked to find that she was naked. She was even more shocked to find someone was in the bed next to her. "HOLY SHIT!" She was in a panic and could feel her chest constricting painfully. Sienna couldn't breath, she couldn't think, except about one thing, she had probably fucked that person who was in that bed.

Sienna had always thought that though her stepfather raped her on a daily basis, that she was still sort of a virgin. That all those times didn't count because she didn't want them to happen, but the first time that she gave her consent and willingly slept with someone, it would be special. She had always held on to that idea, and it made it easier for her to deal with being raped.

Now though, that plan was shot to hell. She had screwed some stranger in a drunken night, and she couldn't even remember it anyways. This was horrible, sickening, and Sienna could barely even raise her head up. She was so ashamed, that she couldn't help but feel a couple of tears spill out of her eyes. They slowly made there way down her cheeks as she hastily wiped them away. This was no time to be weak.

She moved towards the bed to grab a blanket to cover herself, and when she pulled it off the person in the bed, her stomach lurched. She was going to be sick.

Sienna put her hands over her mouth in shock before saying, "This can't be happening."

Braden was lying there, completely naked and in a deep sleep. She couldn't handle this. Sienna had slept with her best friend's boyfriend, who had just last night professed his undying love for her. She had willingly betrayed her friend and had lost her 'virginity' even though she couldn't remember it.

This was all too much, Sienna felt her knees buckle as she collapsed onto the ground. She had managed to ruin everything, and to single handedly hurt herself and the only other person that really cared about her, Vegas, in the process. Sienna knew she was lower than dirt. That she truly was the most horrifying person in the world.

She couldn't stand seeing him naked on the bed like that any longer, she had to get him out, she had to get herself out. "Wake up! Come on asshole….get out of bed already!" She was shaking him violently. Sienna knew she was losing it, that she was in utter panic and despair, but she also knew that she had every right to be.

"Just five more minutes." He mumbled almost incoherently.

"GET THE FUCK UP, BRADEN!" She was literally trembling by now. What had she done?

He moaned before saying, "Okay, just stop shaking me, Vegas."

Just hearing Braden say her name, made Sienna's breath stop. She wasn't the person that was supposed to be waking him up after a night of drinking and sex, Vegas was supposed to be doing this. Sienna wasn't supposed to be in this position. "I'm not Vegas." The words practically choked her and got caught in her throat as she said them. All she could think to herself was, _No she wasn't Vegas because Vegas would never do something like this._

Braden's eyes slowly flashed open at these words and he sat himself up. His eyes fixed on Sienna. He blinked repeatedly as if to make sure that it was really her and Sienna just stood there, with the blanket around her, looking miserable and guilty. She didn't have it in her to say anything in that moment. So the silence, lingered on.

"How….did we…Do you know if we, um, uh," Braden was struggling to get the words out. His brain seemed as if it was shut off, he couldn't really process the situation, it was all just so surprising.

"I can't remember much about last night, but I think we did…uh…do that." She couldn't even say what they did; it was too shameful.

Braden nodded. He didn't know what to say. He was too busy trying to sort through what was happening to be able to even think of what to say. He couldn't speak. He couldn't help though, but think to himself that maybe this was a good thing. Maybe, this was the how him and Sienna would get together.

Still, Braden felt like shit for what he did to Vegas. He had cheated on her, and not only with just any girl, but with her best friend. He was the worst kind of guy out there.

Sienna suddenly shifted her weight as she was staring at Braden and she said firmly, "I think you should go before anyone sees you in here."

Braden couldn't go. He may have the most excruciating hang over, but he still knew that he'd suffer a worse kind of pain if he left right then, regret. "No, Sienna. I'm not going to go until we figure out what happened."

"We had some drunken sex, big deal. Now that _that_ mystery is solved, you can leave."

Braden sighed, "What about Vegas?"

Sienna bit her lip and dropped her gaze from Braden's. "She deserves to know the truth." She also thought to herself, but refrained from saying aloud,_ Vegas also deserved a better friend, and a better boyfriend._

"So your going to tell her…about us and about what I said?"

"There is no 'us', Braden. We screwed once and neither of us can even remember it. And _no _I'm not going to tell Vegas anything, because I think that it's more your responsibility."

"Why am I the one who has to tell her?"

"Because you're the guy whose going to break her heart." Sienna knew that this was true. Vegas had been falling head over heels for Braden more and more as the months passed on by. If Vegas didn't love Braden as much as she does, she wouldn't want to have a long distance relationship with him. Sienna knew that, and Braden, by the look on his face, didn't.

"She really likes me that much?" His regret and guilt was evident in his voice. Braden never meant to hurt anyone.

Sienna nodded at him and took in one shaky breath. Braden finally noticed how much of a panic Sienna was really in. She was trembling, her breath was labored, and she was frighteningly pale. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she spoke forcefully. "It's just, I really can't believe I did this…with _you_ of all people. I…it's….poor Vegas." Sienna put her head in her hands in disgust as herself.

"What do you mean me out of all people?" Braden was hurt that she sounded like it repulsed her that she ever had sex with him. It made him feel like he didn't deserve her. Maybe he didn't.

"It's just…well Braden, I was a virgin." He looked at her and his eyes were as big as saucers. He had forgotten that little detail, and he began to get angry at himself. Braden was a jerk for doing this, he was going to break Vegas' heart, and he also managed to devirginize Sienna. He could barely speak from the shame and shock of it all.

"I am so, so sorry, Sienna." He rose from the bed, with a blanket wrapped tightly around him, and motioned to give her a hug. Sienna shrunk back from him, however, and shook her head.

"No touching…not after what's happened."

"Well, Sienna, what I said when I was drunk…" He took a deep breath for some courage before continuing. "I meant it. I care a lot about you."

"No, you are not going to do this right now. Me and you will never happen because I have already betrayed Vegas enough for one life, I will not hurt her even more."

Braden winced and he knew she was right. Vegas had already been betrayed enough, but he couldn't just stop loving Sienna with a snap of his fingers. He still felt so much for her. "I know…but Vegas is so strong and confident, she'll move on within a week. That's just the way she is. I'm not like that though, I will probably be thinking about you constantly."

Sienna's heart lurched; he really did love her didn't he? She looked at him, and into his eyes. She had the urge to pull him closer but she refrained from doing so. With great pain, she answered, "I can't." Sienna closed her eyes and breathed, "I need to go."

Braden sadly watched her gather her clothes up, and silently walk over to the door. She put her hand on the doorknob, but she paused for a second as she looked down at the floor. Sienna then bent over to pick up something in the trashcan; it was a used condom. "Well, if we had any doubt of what we did, here is some proof." She dropped it back into the trashcan and left.

Braden's heart left with her.


	13. Fighting the Truth

Well, first off, this chapter bored me a little bit, but it kind of has to be written ya know? and yes I know that Braden isn't spelled the way it is on the show, but that is because spelling it that way just urkes me l0l. So i decided i can change it so it won't distract me. But yeah, keep reading because I've got some cuh-razy plot twists coming. Awww yeah!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland, or Jesse McCartney, or all that jazz...**

* * *

Braden was deep in thoughtas he crept slowly in the early morning light towards the gate leading into his home. He hoped that it was still too early for anybody to be awake, but Braden's hopes for that were not very high. Sadly, he knew his Aunt Ava was an early riser, and liked to surf sometimes as early as 4 in the morning. He prayed to God though that today she wouldn't see him; that by some miracle he could get away with being out all night. He couldn't handle being in trouble on top of everything else he had to deal with.

As he approached his destination, Braden could feel a presence behind him. He didn't know if he even wanted to turn around, in fear of who it might be. A cop, Aunt Ava, Vegas, if it was any of those people, his night would get, if this was even possible, more fucked up than it had already become.

Braden sped up a little and he could hear the footsteps behind him. Just when he thought he couldn't take it anymore, the shadow behind him spoke, "Yo, Braden, you were partying too?"

Braden whirled around in surprise, "Jay? Where were you?"

"At the bar," he said, while obviously still impaired, "I knew quite the lady who had an apartment over the bar. Wouldn't that just be awesome? Drinks all the time!" He smiled as he flailed his arms around awkwardly.

"You were partying again?" Even though that was exactly what Braden had been doing, it still was disappointing when Jay did it. He was slipping further and further away into denial, and the farther you go, the harder it is to come back and that scared the shit out of Braden.

Jay tilted his head back lazily towards the sky as he said, "Yeah, weren't you? I s'pose both of us will have to sneak in now. Damn will you look at that sky? Talk about colors, man!"

"Yeah, it's riveting," remarked Braden sarcastically. "When are you going to stop getting piss drunk every night and screwing every girl in sight?"

"Now, now, Braden, if you make me angry, I just might have to tell Ava that you were sneaking in this morning after a night of drinking." He smiled wickedly, "If you be nice to me, I just might forget to tell her."

Braden rolled his eyes, "Fine, be quiet then." Jay was never going to get better, not until Erica came back, if she ever did. So there was no point in arguing with him. Braden motioned for Jay to walk in front of him, before they both headed towards the house.

As silently as they could, the pair of them tiptoed into the eerily quiet yard and weaved their way towards their rooms. Luckily, no one heard a sound, and soon enough Braden was lying in his bed thinking about Sienna and Vegas. He was so distracted with his own problem that he was missing a different problem that was someone else's, a problem that was consistently growing.

………………

Sienna was balling into her pillow as she watched Reece's menacing figure leave the room. So far, she had been used twice in the same day; at this point, people should just get into a line and wait to have sex with her. Just have one of those fucking tickets, and person after person can make her feel like shit. That's how it already felt like though.

A mere hour after she had crept into her window, Reece came in for an early morning 'pick me up'. She wished beyond anything that she had been drunk this time instead of the time she had with Braden. Sienna would have given anything just to forget this one time.

As he left though, the memory of it all was fresh in her mind, and so was the memory of her morning. Sienna had been going over the situation repeatedly in her head and had been practicing over and over again what she was going to say to Vegas once she knew. No matter how many times Sienna played it over in her head, she still couldn't get over the fear she felt at having her best friend know that she was a traitor…low life scum is more like it.

She shuddered at the thought of Vegas hating her and tried to put it out of her mind. Sienna couldn't though, because she knew that by tomorrow, her best friend could hate her. She also didn't want to have to face Braden again, and Sienna knew that it would happen eventually, but the thought of seeing him in three days at work seemed surreal. How can a people work together when so much crap is happening with them? What are they supposed to say to each other?

Sienna made herself stop thinking about seeing Braden because it was the least of her problems; after all, three days ought to be plenty time to get over her issues with it.

……………………….

Three days later…

"Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god, I am not over this. I'm not ready to see him," Sienna was muttering in a panicked frenzy. She was on her way to work and over the past three days, she had had no contact with Vegas, Braden, or anybody else really. She had talked to no one and it was starting to scare her. Sienna was scared of what she might hear once she did talk to Braden.

She had done two lines of cocaine for a little good luck before she left because Sienna didn't give a crap if Braden found out she was a druggy, she just wanted this day not to suck as much. The coke did little though, to ease her nerves as she slowly walked towards the dreaded doors of the surf shop.

Sienna took a deep calming breath before reaching out her hand and pulling the door open. She walked in without a word and without bothering to look for Braden. All she would do for eight hours was work. There would be no talking or socializing of any kind. Sienna didn't think that Braden even knew she had walked in, but as she continued doing her daily routine, she figured that he was doing the same thing she was; he probably wanted to ignore her just as much as she wanted to ignore him.

The first four hours slipped by silently and comfortably like this, and neither of them had yet to breathe a word to the other. The utter silence though, was interrupted as Jay strolled into the shop and with a suspicious smile he remarked, "Geez, you guys sure are quiet today…" Anyone with any type of instincts at all would have been able to tell that something was up. Jay had felt the tension as soon as he had walked into the shop.

"Yeah, I'm not much into the talking mood at the moment." Sienna answered frostilywhile folding a shirt near the back of the store.

"Me neither." Braden answered quickly, and silence followed. Jay was waiting, in vain, for maybe a further explanation for their quietness, but they said nothing.Neither Braden nor Sienna were planning on enlightening him on what was going on.

"Well, I guess you both can just go get some lunch together…while not talking…since you're not in the mood." Jay was eyeing the two of them, trying to guess what was wrong. Not even he though, could have predicted what happened between them; it was just too insane and weird.

When neither of them moved from the work that they were doing, Jay was getting frustrated, "That means it's time for your guys' break." There was still no movement from either of them, "Which means both of you leave for a half hour, now GO!"

Finally, Braden dropped what he was doing and headed towards the door, with Sienna close behind him (not too close though). They both exited the shop silently, while feeling Jay's questioning eyes burning into their backs.

Sienna felt awkward when they both ended up walking in the same direction, and she was tempted to ask him the question that she had been yearning to ask him all day. She felt it was best to keep up the quietness though because maybe if she talked to him once, he'd think it was all right to talk again, and it seriously and truly WASN'T.

She stopped and got a smoothie because she really didn't think her stomach could handle anything else at the moment; her tummy was doing too many flip-flops today for her to risk eating anything else. Braden, she noticed, went into Johnny's diner, and Sienna wasn't surprised. He always went and visited Johnny and it was kind of sweet how close the two of them were.

After twenty minutes, Sienna saw him leave the diner and start walking over to the beach. She followed him with her eyes and she realized that her question that she needed to ask him was bothering her too much; she wanted it answered. She got up and quickly threw her garbage away. Sienna followed after Braden, and called out, "Braden, wait!"

He turned around, with surprise, and a little worry, clearly on his face. He looked at her questioningly.

Sienna ran up to where he was and while catching her breath she spoke, "We don't have to talk or anything, but I just kind of wanted to know something."

He was afraid she was going to ask him something horribly embarrassing like if he really did love her and then she'd laugh in his face again. Braden figured though, that being embarrassed was nothing, and that he deserved to have any and all feelings of discomfort for cheating on Vegas.

Sienna looked down for some courage and proceeded to ask him timidly, "Have you told Vegas yet?"

Braden put on a guilty face and mumbled back, "She's been kind of busy with Gideon and I uh, didn't think it was umthe right time when—"

"It's been three days and you guys usually hang out all day every day. Either, you're stalling, or Gideon has suddenly become a homosexual god. Which is it?" Sienna really just wanted Vegas to know the truth, because waiting around for her to yell and scream and for their friendship to fall apart wasn't going to be very fun. Sienna wanted the worst to be over with already.

"Wait. Gideon is gay?"

Sienna looked at him in disbelief, "Your girl friend has been hanging out with him at parties, and has been constantly by his side since he's gotten here, and it didn't even bother you when you thought he was straight? You weren't even worried that your girl friend was spending the night at his _house?_"

"Well, I guess it didn't occur to me that—"

"I mean did you even care about her at all? You don't care if she spends the night with other guys or isn't around you for a couple days, and it doesn't even bother you what happened at the party!"

Braden's blood was boiling. The things she was saying were actually true, and that pissed him off. He hadn't cared aboutVegas spending so much time with Gideon, and it hadn't even crossed his mind to be jealous, like a normal boyfriend would be. He knew that he had screwed up, but Braden would rather die than admit that to Sienna. "Yes, actually, I do care about Vegas; thanks for your concern in that area. I care so much about her, in fact, that I'm not looking forward to 'breaking her heart' as you put it earlier. So I'm sorry if I haven't told her yet, it's a little hard for me to deliberately hurt someone who never deserved it. And by the way, it DID bother me that she was spending so much time with Gideon, that is, it did until I realized that I could trust her. So back the fuck off."

He was a little taken aback at how loudly and easily those words came out. Braden was never good with words, especially when he was supposed to scream them. He was the kind of person that got tongue tied, or didn't know what to say back in retaliation when he was in an arguement. But today, he had let it all out on Sienna. He had basically 'bitched her out' and contrary to how he'd thought he'd feel, Braden felt like an asshole.

He wanted to apologize almost instantly after he screamed at her, but he never got the chance. Sienna breathed hotly threw clenched teeth, "Tell her by tomorrow you bastard."

As she stormed off back towards the surfing shop, Braden wondered why it was they were always fighting. He knew that he usually fought with her because he was frustrated that he couldn't be with her, but why did she fight with him so much? Braden wished they fought for the same reasons.


	14. Bottoms Up

_I hope this one is more exciting for you guys, this was actually supposed to be connected to the other chapter, but I had so many crazy ideas that before i knew it, I had written four more pages. So yeah...have fun_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or its characters**

The rest of the time at work had gone by agonizingly slow. For three and a half more hours, they were both trying to work up the nerve to talk, and apologize to the other. Neither of them spoke, however, and as their shift was coming to an end, Sienna let out a giant sigh of relief.

Jay strolled in at about 6:30 and told them both to scat. There was silence as the two of them walked out the door to go, and headed in their opposite directions. Sienna was enjoying her walk home because it gave her time to think, so she headed towards the beach to have more time. It was always relaxing to look at the waves and comforting to know how small and insignificant her problems were compared to the 'big picture.'

Her toes wriggled in the hot sand as she weaved in between all the people who were still hanging out at the beach. As she passed a surfer, he gave her a flirtatious wink and she smiled stiffly back. He was cute, and if this was any other time, she'd flirt her little ass off, but right now, she just needed to clear her head.

Sienna walked on, and was heading a little towards the rocky parts of the beach, when she heard someone calling her name behind her. Her body went cold when she realized who it was; it was Vegas. "Sienna! Sienna, stop, are you like deft or something?"

"Sorry, I was just uh, thinking," Sienna smiled weakly at her friend. It was hard to talk to her because she didn't know how to act. Vegas didn't even know the truth yet and Sienna was just going to pretend like nothing had happened; that didn't feel right, she didn't want to keep this from Vegas.

"I needed to talk to you about Wynnie." Vegas said cheerfully.

Sienna was a little side tracked. She wanted to tell Vegas the truth right here and right now, but the mention of Wynnie's name was enough to get her thinking about everything else, "Oh man, what did she do now? Tell me it wasn't too bad!"

"Um, did you see her at Gideon's party a couple days back?" Sienna's stomach did a flip-flop just by hearing of that damned party.

"Yeah."

"Well she tried to come up and talk to me…"

"The nerve of that bitch. You know after what happened last year you'd think she'd learn. Wynnie is just….ugh!"

"Yeah, and she," Vegas' smile faltered and she looked thoughtfully at the ground. This is when Sienna realized that there was something not right about her cheerfulness. There was something fake about it. "She tried to tell me some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Stuff about….you."

"Like what?" Sienna was frightened now.

"About you and Braden." Sienna could feel the color draining from her face as she heard these words. Vegas knew, she KNEW what happened, and she looked so depressed about it. Sienna had single handedly crushed her best friend, and it was the worst feeling in the world. Vegas shouldn't have found out about it this way, Wynnie wasn't the one who was supposed to tell her.

With Sienna's voice as shaky as a massage chair she answered with a squeak, "What did she say?"

"Wynnie didn't say much. She just showed me some pictures," Sienna closed her eyes and winced, _so Wynnie took some pictures of her with Braden, huh?_ "Then she recorded some, uh…sounds." Vegas' voice faltered as she rested her head in her hands. She looked so incredibly sad. There was no doubt what Vegas was referring to, Sienna didn't even have to ask what she meant.

"I am so sorry, I was drunk and I can't even—"

"You stupid, stupid dike. You slept with him when you knew that I loved him. I LOVED HIM, Sienna."

"I'm not making excuses, but I regret that night so much. I don't even remember doing it either, but the fact that it even happened…I'm so sorry." Sienna could barely contain all her regret and sadness at the conversation they were just having. It pained Sienna to see Vegas this upset and for her to be the cause.

Vegas laughed a little, "You're sorry? You are telling me you're fucking sorry? Do you expect for that to fix what you did, you little tramp!"

"Vegas, please, I know I can't fix it but if I could--"

"You can't fix it, so don't tell me what you would do if you could. Just tell me this, was it worth it?"

"What?"

"Was the hot, steamy, drunken sex worth it? Was it a fair trade off, losing me, but gaining my boyfriend?"

"It wasn't like that, I don't even remember doing it, and nothing is worth your friendship to me. I love you like a sister, please, just listen to me." Sienna was begging with all her heart to save her friendship. Vegas was everything to her.

"Yeah, I've got quite the fucking sister right here. Sleeps with my boyfriend whom, by the way, I FUCKING LOVED. Don't you get it, Sienna? You chose him, and hurt me in the most treacherous way. I hope you're happy you whore."

"Of course I'm not happy, please, don't…."

There was never a finish to that sentence as Vegas swung her fist and made direct contact with Sienna's nose. The pain was instant, and Sienna cupped her nose as she felt the blood oozing out in globs. She didn't dare retaliate, because Vegas had every right to smack the crap out of her. She just waited for the next attack to come.

Vegas this time went for her hair, and yanked it hard. Sienna felt a huge wad of her curly locks being ripped from her skull. She tried to pry Vegas' hand away once the agony proved to be too much, but it wouldn't work. Sienna could feel the crowd around them forming and getting bigger. Her head was searing with pain because Vegas was yanking even harder now, and Sienna couldn't take it any longer, she had to fight back. She scratched and clawed at Vegas' face like an insane blind man. She just wanted to be free from Vegas' grip on her hair and then she would run away from this. But Vegas refused to let go.

With Vegas' other arm, she tried to punch Sienna again, and she missed, but only barely. Sienna had felt it skim her hair and a shudder ran down her spine. She really was in a fistfight with her best friend. Sienna then threw a punch of her own and her clenched fist knocked right into Vegas' mouth, leaving her lip split open and bleeding.

Vegas's nails then managed to dig into Sienna's neck as she yelped out in pain. Vegas was still holding onto a little bit of Sienna's hair too, and it was starting to numb a little bit, and Sienna was starting to get pissed. When Vegas gave her hair another tug though, Sienna spat angrily, "Let's see how you like this, bitch!" Sienna grabbed Vegas' hair and pulled with all her might. Her weight was entirely on that glob of deep red hair and in a split second, it detached itself from Vegas' head. Vegas let out a horrible scream as it was torn off her scalp, and Sienna felt pangs of regret as she looked down at the huge wad of hair in her hand.

"I am so sorry Vegas!" Sienna stopped her fighting and hair pulling, and just wanted the whole thing to end, but Vegas wasn't ready for that, and Sienna was punched squarely in the jaw. _That's fucking it_, thought Sienna, _I can't turn the other cheek or she'll literally kill me. I've got to fight back until someone breaks us apart._

That is exactly what Sienna did, and she punched Vegas back and as her fist jammed into Vegas' cheek, she could hear something instantly crack. It sounded disturbingly like bones….and that's when the spectators finally pried the two bloodied girls apart.

…………………..

Braden was grumpily trying to watch television as his Aunt Ava was loudly complaining to Susannah about Jay. This was now, just about an every day occurrence. "He won't even listen to me anymore. I know he's hurting too, but there are other ways of dealing with it like—"

"Like how you dealt had with your break up with Johnny?" Braden interjected agitatedly. This was getting ridiculous; his aunt always wanted to fix everything and no one can make everything around them perfect. Jay's heart was broken, and this was his own personal way of getting threw it.

Ava turned towards him and said calmly, "I never said that. I just thought he could deal with it in a better way."

"Well, you weren't happy with how Jay was dealing with it before, when he was in the house eating ice cream all day, and now your not happy with him partying all the time either. It seems like no matter what, it won't be good enough unless it's your way."

Susannah and Ava both looked at Braden as if he had grown an extra head. Ava looked at him with her mouth open before replying, "That's not what I said, Braden. Now what is wrong with you tonight?"

He shifted on the couch to get more comfortable. To be honest, he didn't even know why he was in such a bad mood. Maybe it was because the little altercation with Sienna set his horrible mood for the rest of the day. He just couldn't snap out of it, "Nothing is wrong, I'm just saying my opinion. Jay deals with his heartache in a different way, and I personally, think it's better than your 'pretending not to care so I'll keep myself insanely and compulsively busy' way." Braden didn't know why these things were coming out of his mouth; they just wouldn't stop.

"I think it's time you go to your room, Braden Westerly, but thanks so much for the support," came Jay's unexpected voice from the doorway. Ava's face got slightly pink and Susannah looked at him guiltily.

Braden didn't move, however, as he looked Jay up and down. He was pleased to see that he wasn't drunk, not yet at least. "Like my dear Braden worded it, Ava, I like to deal with 'heartache' in a different way than you. I'm sorry you can't control everything."

"Jay, that's not fair, I don't want to control you, but I don't want you stumbling in at 5 in the morning and waking the kids up!" Ava was getting a little heated with this argument.

"Braden," Jay turned towards the blonde haired boy, "have I ever woken you up as I was sneaking to my room?" Braden thought of the first time he caught Jay sneaking back into the house, Jay hadn't woken him up; he had already been awake.

"No, you've never woken me up." he answered back honestly.

"Well, see Ava? Now you don't have to worry because none of the children have or will wake up as I sneak back into the house." Jay smiled at her sarcastically and added, "Aren't you glad we cleared that up?" He turned and was beginning to walk away, satisfied with that conversation.

"Get back here, Jay!" ordered Ava angrily, "You know just as much as me that I have other worries too."

"And I'm a grown man, so it's not like you can ground me. I will go out and drink whenever I want because it makes me feel better and you can't convince me any different." Jay gave Braden a nice little wave as he turned on his heel and walked away from the house.

Braden looked at Ava sadly as they watched him walking along the beach, knowing that he was heading, yet again, to the bars.

"He needs Erica." Susannah whispered, which was exactly what Braden was thinking in his head.

Ava tore her eyes away from Jay's distant figure and replied, "Then he needs to stop looking for her at the bottom of a bottle."


	15. Clueless

_This chapter was really sucky to write, and I think you can tell by how I wrote this that I was kind of sick of it...but oh well life will go on l0l. Anyways, thanks to everyone who reviewed._

**Disclaimer: I don't own Summerland or its characters.**

The next day, Braden was desperately trying to get a hold of Vegas, but she wouldn't answer her phone, and when he went by her house, no one came to the door. He had no way to tell her about what happened at the party and he knew he had to do that before he worked with Sienna again or else Sienna would probably scream at him for a second time.

This whole situation was unsettling to Braden. He had screwed up so bad by staying with Vegas when he knew that he cared about Sienna more. It wasn't his best decision and now he was paying for it severely. He regretted how much he had and would hurt both of the girls. Braden was still afraid to tell Vegas the truth about that night, but he knew it had to happen. The fact that he couldn't even get a hold of her in order to tell her though was starting to make Braden anxious. He needed to tell her as soon as possible.

Suddenly, his cell phone rang, and Braden's stomach plummeted. It had to be Vegas, and he would have to tell her right now. The time had come to be honest, and with a shaky hand, Braden answered his phone. "Hello?"

"Hi," came a sad little whisper from the other line. It wasn't Vegas, but it was Sienna.

Braden was a bit relieved that it wasn't Vegas because than that meant he didn't have to hurt her just yet, but he was also worried about why Sienna would call him. He spoke cautiously. "Um, Hey….what's up?"

"I just called to tell you never mind." Sienna seemed deeply distracted and urgent.

"Never mind? Never mind about what?"

"You don't need to tell Vegas anymore…" She had a short intake of breath before continuing with a regretful tone. "She already knows."

He hoped that Sienna didn't mean what he thought she meant. "Knows what?"

"God, Braden, do you need me to spell it out for you? Vegas knows that we fucked each other."

His head was spinning with this new information and Braden couldn't quite figure out what it meant. How did Vegas find out? Is that why she wasn't answering his calls? Why hadn't she come to yell and scream at him yet? Was she all right? His head was swarming with so many questions that all he could manage to sputter was, "Well, uh wha…how?"

"Remember how I saw my cousin Wynnie at the party?" Sienna spoke slowly and with all the emotion gone from her voice. She sounded detached.

"Yeah"

"She took pictures of us together, and even recorded the sounds we made while we were….you know."

There were no words to express what Braden was feeling now. He loathed himself so much in that moment; all he could think about was Vegas having to look at those pictures of him with her best friend and for her to have to hear him be with someone else. He had hurt her so much.

When the silence lingered on too long, Sienna quickly shattered the quiet with another bombshell, "There's something else too."

He finally found his voice, "There's more?"

"Yeah," she replied while wincing. This was hard for Sienna to say, "She left early for private school. Vegas didn't have a reason to stay here, so she's, uh, gone."

It took a moment for Braden to grasp what that meant. He wouldn't be seeing her for a very long time and he would have no way to apologize or even speak to Vegas for months. She probably wouldn't even want to visit here on weekends anymore, because who would want to go visit their cheating ex-boyfriend? He doubted whether he would ever be able to see her again, Vegas was gone. "When did she leave?"

"This morning." Sienna answered. She almost felt compelled to tell Braden about her fight with Vegas and how she had broken Vegas' cheekbone, but Sienna couldn't bring herself to say it. Talking about it pained her too much.

"Oh…" He shook his hair out of his face, and wrinkled his brow. Braden had no idea what he was supposed to do now. There were no books that told you what to say in a situation like this.

Sienna bit her lip in nervousness and finally after a full five minutes of no talking, she spoke into the receiver, "I think I'm going to let you go now. I'll see you around…"

"Wait, don't hang up." Braden added desperately; he had suddenly thought of something that didn't quite make sense.

"Um, okay…"

He asked curiously, "How did you know that Vegas had found out about us? Did she, uh, talk to you about it before she left?"

Sienna sighed. She didn't know if she should tell him or not, and Sienna went back and forth in her head on whether or not she should, but in the end, it made sense just to tell him the truth. "Yesterday after work, she came and talked to me."

"And?" Braden was impatient to hear what Vegas had said.

"Well, she was understandably a little angry after hearing that her boyfriend and best friend had slept together."

"So she was yelling and upset?" He sounded concerned and guilty at this news.

Sienna reasoned, "For a while."

"Then she calmed down?"

"Not really…"

"Well, what happened then?"

"You know, Braden, I really have to go."

"Why don't you want to tell me?"

Sienna pursed her lips; he was obviously not going to give up. Braden really wanted to know what happened between her and Vegas; Sienna supposed he had a right to know. "Ugh, fine, Vegas punched me."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah…so can I go n—"

"She punched you and what did you do after that?"

"I fought back a little bit, but really it was just--"

"You two got into a catfight? How bad was it? Are you all right? Is she all right? I can't believe…" This is when Braden noticed that the person on the other line was no longer listening. "Sienna?" He looked at his phone and read the words 'call ended'. She had hung up on him.

……………………

A day later, Sienna found herself roaming around the peer alone. She needed to get out of the house and away from her stepfather and her mother; she just needed to get away to think and figure out what she was going to do. She wanted her best friend back.

Sienna could feel the stares from people as she passed them; they obviously didn't see too many people as banged up as she was. There were bruises all over her body from the fight she had had with Vegas, but a couple of her injuries were from a certain someone else. She ignored the curious looks from strangers though as she walked over to sit down on the bench that looked over the ocean's waters.

As she was walking though she was spotted by, none other than, Nikki and Cameron. "Sienna, hey!"

Sienna smiled at Nikki, and gave a fakely cheerful hello to the happy couple. She really didn't feel like staying and having a long chat though, so she was trying to gradually back away from them, but Nikki stopped her with a question, "I haven't seen you around the house lately, where've ya been?"

Now this was uncomfortable; obviously Braden hadn't gotten around to explaining to his sister what had happened. Sienna paused for a moment to think of what to say to this before answering, "Well, me and your brother are kind of ignoring each other right now."

"Oh my god, why? What did he do _now_?" Nikki was looking genuinely concerned, but she was oblivious to Sienna's awkwardness at these questions.

Cameron seemed to take immediate notice of Sienna's discomfort, however, and suggested tentatively to Nikki, "It really is none of our business, maybe we should talk about something else."

Sienna looked at Cameron thankfully, but Nikki quickly interjected, "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry, but I just thought maybe you're not around much anymore because Braden and Vegas broke up…and you being her friend stopped talking to him because of that."

"Nikki, I thought we were going to drop this subject." Cameron gave her a warning look, but she didn't take the slightest notice of it.

"And I think that if that is why you stopped talking to my brother, than that's really unfair and stupid. You don't pick sides when people break up; a good person stays friends with both of them."

"Nikki!" Her boyfriend was now looking at her while simply exasperated by her behavior.

Sienna was seriously confused by how Nikki was acting as well. She had no idea where Braden's sister would get the idea that she had stopped talking to him just because her best friend wasn't dating him anymore. Did Nikki really think she was that superficial? How could she even think that in the first place? "Did Braden tell you that's why were not talking?"

Nikki shrugged her shoulders, "That's the idea I got from what he told me. Although, all he does is grunt and mumble so I could be wrong."

"Yeah, well, you are." Sienna was agitated that Nikki thought it was her right to butt in and state her opinion on things that had nothing to do with her. What did Nikki care if her brother and Sienna weren't talking?

Cameron was sensing a little bit of tension between the two girls and he quickly tried to smooth it over, "Me and Nikki had better get going. Were seeing a movie tonight."

Nikki glared at him and replied hotly, "You know what, since your so desperate to come to Sienna's defense you can stay out here with her while _I_ go and see the movie!" She turned on her heel and headed off towards the movies, leaving two very confused people behind her.

"Umm…..wow" Sienna laughed out loud, "That was just about the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me."

Even though he tried not to, Cameron couldn't help laughing too. "I have no idea what got into her!"

"I guess she went from thinking I was cool to thinking I was the spawn of Satan within a week." It did bother Sienna that Nikki obviously thought she was a bitch, but she didn't let it bother her too much. It was actually kind of funny.

Cameron smiled at her and shook his head disbelievingly. "I don't understand you people."

"You people?" she questioned with her eyebrows raised and a glimmer in her eyes.

"I mean you _girls_. You change your minds every five seconds and you never NEVER mean what you say." Cameron rolled his eyes dramatically.

Sienna gave him a mocking smirk and shot back, "If you think us girls are the only ones who can't make up our minds, your wrong. You _boys_ like to change girls like you change your underwear."

"Now, hey, some guys don't change their underwear that often."

"Ha ha, you're so funny," she answered sarcastically while rolling her eyes, "But you better get out of here and go after Nikki."

"She said she wanted to watch the movie by herself though…"

"I thought you understood that girls don't mean what they say! What she really meant was 'you'd better follow me and not talk to that bitch or else'."

"Oh geez, I'd better go than. See you later!" He said while turning to jog towards the movies.

"Yeah yeah, later!" Sienna smiled as she watched him rush towards the movies. Boys were so clueless especially boys who lied to make themselves look better…..boys like Braden.


End file.
